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?ts 1) end, ye liarvest-t wart to HIM; 
Breathe your ^ti]l sono into the reaper's heart, 
lie li- goes heneath. the joyotu moon. 



jbTlTM ■ 



Dru»n 



^J!S A^ QM 

BY 

JAMES THOMSON 

HMIBlBHLIilSiHHD WffTOE BMCjRAm 

FROM THE X'/EVS.I'JWS OF 







THE A 



SEASONS: 



WITH THE 



CASTILE OF INBOLENCE, 



3Y 



JAMES THOMSON. 



NEW-YORK: 
?ul$j»hed by W. B. Gilley, 9j2 Broadway. 

1817. 









ill 



Daniel iTanshaw, Printer, C41 Pearl-street. 



CRITICAL OBSERVATIONS. 



When the Author of the Seasons came to London 
in pursuit of patronage and fame, his first want, as 
his biographer informs us, was a pair of shoes. " For 
the supply of all his necessities, his whole fund was 
his Winter, which for a time could find no pur- 
chaser; till, at last, Mr. Miliaria bookseller in the 
Strand, was persuaded to buy it at a low price ; 
and this low price he had for some time reason to 
regret." We are not informed what estimate Thom- 
son himself had formed of this production : whether 
with self-supported confidence he anticipated the 
reception it would eventually meet with from the 
public, or whether he was satisfied to dispose of his 
unproductive treasure for a sum that provided for 
the wants of the moment — as he would have dispos- 
ed of a precious stone of uncertain value to the first 
lapidary who would set a price upon it. In his most 
sanguine and ambitious moments he Could not have 
ventured to hope, that the poem would ultimately 
not only amply reward its purchaser, but take its 
rank among productions which are considered as 
eras in our literature, and become identified with the 
language. 

The ' Seasons' is one of those rare and original 
productions, in which, at distant intervals in the pro- 



4 

gress of literature, genius appears to burst forth in 
distinct individuality of character, in spite, it may be, 
of the bad taste or prevailing mediocrity of the pe- 
riod. There is in the human frame a perfect but inde- 
finable correspondence which extends to every joint, 
to the very hair of the head : the artificial violation 
of this harmony is immediately perceptible. Some- 
thing of this kind exists with respect to the produc- 
tions of real genius. As models, they will be found 
exceedingly defective. They would mislead, as much 
as they defy imitation. But there is in them, as a 
whole, a certain homogeneousness of expression, 
which rescues even their faults from impropriety 
They please or affect us, not so much by particular 
qualities of excellence, as by the force of character 
diffused through the production, and by that Prome- 
thean power which the poet appears to possess of 
making his words glow and breathe with instinctive 
life. Milton and Thomson, although immeasurably 
dissimilar, may yet be adduced as two remarkable 
instances of poets whose chief works have attained 
an almost equal degree of popularity, and have 
produced a powerful effect on our literature ; and 
yet, in point of style and diction, they elude all at- 
tempts at successful imitation: the one, by a severe 
majesty of manner which ill befits an inferior subject, 
or the productions of an inferior mind ; the other, 
the Johnson of poetry, has a gait of natural pomp,, 
which it is mimicry to adopt ; the moment it appears 
to be artificial it becomes ridiculous 



The causes winch have contributed to the univer- 
sal popularity of this original poem, are, we do not 
scruple to say, not more its merits, than its subject 
and its defects. How much is due to the subject, 
might be presumed from the circumstance, that this 
alone of Thomson's poems has maintained itself in 
public favour, although, in the opinion of competent 
critics, it is not his best. Few titles have been found 
less attractive than The " Poetical Works of James 
Thomson," at the very time that bis Seasons are cir- 
culating in every form the press can give them, Dr. 
Johnson's sentence upon Liberty and Britannia 
has never been reversed : (for once, as a critic, he was 
just :) and even the Castle of Indolence is more prais- 
ed than read. Thomson's subject was a happy one ; 
but what rendered it particularly so, was, that when 
he wrote, it was a subject altogether open to a poet 
who wished to succeed by novelty. Spenser was ob- 
solete ; Milton had been generally neglected : Addi- 
son having then only recently done himself the ho- 
nour of introducing the Paradise Lost to the notice 
of the public. With these great exceptions, there 
existed little descriptive poetry worthy of the name. 
The principal use which had been made of natural 
scenery, was, as an eternal storehouse of similies for 
the enditers of heroics, or of love elegies and madri- 
gals. The absurdities of many of our town-bred or 
scholastic verse-men, in what then passed for des- 
criptive poetry, form a standing subject of ridicule,. 
1* . 



Ill vain shall we look among the works of the <>esf 
of our poets, from the time of Elizabeth to this pe- 
riod, for any traces of accurate observation, or genu- 
ine feeling in reference to the beauties of Nature. 
"From Dryden to Thomson," a very competent 
authority has remarked, " there is scarcely a rural 
image drawn from life to be found in any of the 
English poets except Gay." Pope, who in his Wind- 
sor Forest seemed to have taken Denham as his 
model, as if ambitious of excelling in descriptive 
poetry, discovers much of the same French taste, 
the same want of native and appropriate feeling, 
which are chargeable on his predecessors. A poet 
then had only to copy the every-day beauties of 
nature, in the language of a genuine lover of nature, 
to be original. Thomson, partly from early habits, 
partly perhaps from accident, struck into this path. 
In his schoolboy days, with Virgil in his hand, he 
walked abroad, amid scenes sufficient to awaken all 
the enthusiasm he possessed, which was that of an 
artist. He saw, as Johnson remarks, every thing 
with the eye, though he does not appear to have 
felt every thing with the heart of a poet. His subject 
was a fortunate choice. It admitted of being treated 
in that desultory manner which best suited the cha- 
racter of his mind. There was abundant scope for 
all the diffuseness of sentimental description, and for 
all the gorgeousness of colouring. Throughout the 
Seasons, it is to the senses, however, rather than to 



7 

the heart, that the appeal is made. It is as much a 
painting as a poem. 

As, when Thomson published his Winter, the sub- 
ject had the advantage of novelty ; so the Seasons 
still preserves its rank, as the first descriptive poem 
in the language. It is one among our earliest favour- 
ites which serve to awaken a sensibility to the beau- 
ties of external nature. We read it with avidity, and 
perhaps with enthusiasm, at the period when our 
imagination first begins to exercise itself on the ob- 
jects of poetry ; and it retains much of its interest 
in after life, from being associated with the scenes 
of our youthful pleasures. 

When we attribute the popularity which this poem 
has obtained, in some degree to its defects, we allude 
not only to the faults of the style, but to the very 
cast of thought, and the intellectual quality of the 
sentiments, by which the poem is characterized. A 
contemporary critic has remarked, " There are few 
minds in which the love of poetry does not form a 
sort of intellectual instinct; an instinct often blind 
and indiscriminating, yet having reference to some- 
thing nobler than the wants of the physical being, 
and valuable as connected with the first develop- 
ment of the imagination and passions. The poetry 
which aims at popularity, must be adapted to that 
numerous class of readers in whom this instinctive 
feeling exists, but who have stopped short at a very 
low degree of mental cultivation, or whose imagina- 
tion has been neglected amid the pursuits of after 



8 

life." There is nothing in Thomson that requires 
any painful exercise of the faculties, that calls for 
any of the higher exertions of the imagination, or 
that soars beyond the experience of the humblest 
intellect. His style is indeed learned and ornate. 
But Burke has shown that words may the most 
powerfully affect the mind when their meaning is 
indefinite. Where Thomson's language is the most 
inflated, his expressions have generally a specious 
grandeur of meaning derived from the felicity with 
which they are selected. His genius is in this res- 
pect conspicuous : like the evening sun, which im- 
parts pomp and brightness to the unsubstantial 
clouds with which it is enveloped, it changes the 
very character of the faults which it appropriates. 

The greatest defect in the Seasons respects the 
cast of its moral sentiments ; but in this respect it is 
not the less adapted to the more numerous class of 
the readers of poetry. The Religion of the Seasons, 
is of that general kind which Nature's self might 
teach to those who had no knowledge of the God of 
Revelation. It is a lofty and complacent sentiment, 
which plays upon the feelings like the ineffable pow- 
er of solemn harmony, but has no reference to the 
quality of our belief, to the dispositions of the heart, 
or to the habitual tendency of the character ; still 
less does it involve a devotional recognition of the 
revealed character of the Divine Being. But on this 
very account " the Seasons" was adapted to please 
at the time that Pope ruled the republic of taste, 



9 

and to the same cause the poem is still indebted fof 
at least some of its admirers. 

The love of the Poet of the Seasons, is the " Pas- 
sion of the Groves." The author, it is said, was sus- 
ceptible of no higher sentiment. There is a prevail- 
ing vulgarity of feeling on this subject, which is only 
concealed by the splendour of the diction. The Poet's 
ideas of love are such as a schoolboy would naturally 
derive from the perusal of the Pantheon and Ovid's 
Metamorphoses. We know we shall offend common 
prejudice, in pronouncing the tale of Musidora, 
which has furnished so many artists with a subject, 
and the publisher of so many editions of Thomson 
with a captivating embellishment, to be as vulgarly 
conceived, and to be as coarse in sentiment, though 
not in expression, as a Dutch painting. But still 
Thomson is chastity and purity itself in comparison 
with his contemporaries. There is always an air of 
elegance, and even of refinement, thrown over his 
warmest pictures. The Seasons, though they may 
administer fuel to an excited imagination, contain 
scarcely an expression that would raise the blush of 
modesty. This decorum of expression extends also- 
in general to his ideas ; and he is not perhaps to be 
blamed if these do not rise, in point of elevation of 
sentiment, above the level of his experience. 

We are indebted, however, to Thomson for one 
passage on domestic happiness, at the conclusion of 
his " Spring," which does high credit to his feelings 



10 

as a man and as a poet. Thomson never loved ; but 
he was not an unamiable character. He was an af- 
fectionate brother : his benevolence, though it par- 
took of the indolence of his character, was fervid, 
and by his friends, we are told, he was veiy tender- 
ly and warmly beloved. 

It is unnecessary to dwell on the beauties or me- 
rits of his great poem. Johnson has remarked, that 
" his mode of thinking and of expressing his thoughts 
is original." This is no small praise. His descrip- 
tions, varying and rising with his subject, are at times 
magnificent ; at other times they display all the mi- 
nute accuracy only to be obtained by familiar ob- 
servation. No one but an angler could have describ- 
ed with such felicitous correctness the fly-fisher's 
sport in the first Season. There breathes throughout 
his poem the enthusiasm of the poet of Nature : and 
if we cannot allow that the reader of the Seasons 
wonders that he never saw before what Thomson 
shows him," unless it be a reader unaccustomed to 
hold converse with the beautiful in the material 
world, yet he derives a high and more genuine grati- 
fication, in finding the scenes he loves described so 
well 

James Thomson was born at Ednam, in the shire 
of Roxburgh, in 1700. Winter was published in 1726; 
Summer and Spring in the following years ; and Au- 
tumn, with his collected works, in 1730. The inci- 
dents of his life consisted of the patronage he sue- 



11 

ceeded in obtaining, and the disappointments he had 
to encounter. His mother lived to see her son rising 
into eminence. Through the friendship of Lord 
Lyttleton, he was established in ease, if not in afflu- 
ence, when taking cold on the water between Lon- 
don and Kew, he caught a disorder, which, with 
some careless exasperation, terminated fatally, Au- 
gust 27, 1748. A tablet has been recently placed 
on the wall of Richmond church, by the exertions of 
Mr. Park, in conjunction with Lord Buchan, to de* 
note the place of his interment* 



TO THE SHADE OF THOMSON, 

ON CROWNING HIS BUST WITH BAYS 

While virgin Spring, by Eden's flood, 
Unfolds her tender mantle green, 

Or pranks the sod in frolic mood, 
Or tunes Eolian strains between : 

While Summer with a matron grace 
Retreats to Dryburgh's cooling shade. 

Yet oft, delighted, stops to trace 
The progress of the spiky blade : 

While Autumn, benefactor kind, 

By Tweed erects his aged head, 
And sees, with self-approving mind, 

Each creature on his bounty fed : 

While maniac Winter rages o'er 
The hills whence classic Yarrow flows, 

Rousing the turbid torrent's roar, 

Or sweeping, wild, a waste of snows : 

So long, sweet poet of the year ! 

Shall bloom that wreath thou well hast won; 
While Scotia, with exulting tear, 

Proclaims that Thomson was her son. 

OTBHS, 




• together let us tread 



The morning dews, and gather in their prime 
Fresh blooming flowers, to grace thy braided hair. 



Daniel Fanshaw, Printer. 



/ 



SPRING. 



The subject proposed. Inscribed to the Countess of Hartlord. 
The Season is described as it affects the various parts of Na- 
ture, ascending from the lower to the higher; with digressions 
arising from the subject. Tts influence on inanimate Matter, 
on Vegetables , on brute Animals, and last on Man ; concl uding 
with a dissuasive from the wild and irregular passion of Love , 
opposed to that of a pure and happy kind. 



SPRING. 



Come, gentle Spring, ethereal Mildness, come, 
And from the bosom of yon dropping cloud, 
While music wakes around, veil'd in a shower 
Of shadowing roses, on our plains descend. 

O Hartford, fitted or to shine in courts 
"With unaffected grace, or walk the plain 
With innocence and meditation join'd 
In soft assemblage, listen to my song, 
Which thy own Season paints ; when Nature all 
Is blooming and benevolent, like thee. 

And see where surly Winter passes off, 
Far to the north, and calls his ruffian blasts : 
His blasts obey, and quit the howling hill, 
The shatter'd forest, and the ravag'd vale ; 
While softer gales succeed, at whose kind touchy 
Dissolving snows in livid torrents lost, 
The mountains lift their green heads to the sky. 

As yet the trembling year is unconfirm'd. 
And Winter oft at eve resumes the breeze, 
Chills the pale morn, and bids his driving sleets 
Deform the day delightless : so that scarce 
The bittern knows his time, with bill ingulf'd 
To shake the sounding marsh ; or from the shore 



16 SPRING. 

The plovers when to scatter o'er the heath, 
And sing their wild notes to the listening waste. 

At last from Aries rolls the bounteous sun, 
And the bright Bull receives him. Then no more 
Th' expansive atmosphere is cramp'd with cold ; 
But, full of life and vivifying soul, 
Lifts the light clouds sublime, and spreads them thin. 
Fleecy and white, o'er all-surrounding heaven. 

Forth fly the tepid airs ; and, unconfin'd, 
Unbinding earth, the moving softness strays. 
Joyous, th' impatient husbandman perceives 
Relenting Nature, and his lusty steers 
Drives from their stalls, to where the well-us'd plough 
Lies in the furrow, loosen'd from the frost. 
There, unrefusing, to the harness'd yoke 
They lend their shoulder, and begin their toil, 
Cheer'd by the simple song and soaring lark. 
Meanwhile incumbent o'er the shining share 
The master leans, removes the obstructing clay, 
Winds the whole work, and sidelong lays the glebe. 

While thro' the neighb'ring fields the sower stalks, 
With measur'd step ; and liberal throws the grain 
Into the faithful bosom of the ground : 
The harrow follows harsh, and shuts the scene. 

Be gracious, Heaven ! for now laborious man 
Has done his part. Ye fostering breezes, blow ! 
Ye softening dews, ye tender showers, descend ! 
And temper all, thou world-reviving sun, 
Into the perfect year ! Nor ye who live 



SPRING. 17 

In luxury and ease, in pomp and pride, 

Think these lost themes unworthy of your ear : 

Such themes as these the rural Maro sung 

To wide-imperial Rome, in the full height 

Of elegance and taste, by Greece refin'd. 

In ancient times, the sacred plough employ'd 

The kings, and awful fathers of mankind : 

And some, with whom compar'd your insect-tribes 

Are but the beings of a summer's day, 

Have held the scale of empire, rul'd the storm 

Of mighty war ; then, with unwearied hand, 

Disdaining little delicacies, seiz'd 

The plough, and greatly independent liv'd. 

Ye generous Britons, venerate the plough ! 
And o'er your hills, and long withdrawing vales, 
Let Autumn spread his treasures to the sun, 
Luxuriant and unbounded : as the sea, 
Far through his azure turbulent domain, 
Your empire owns, and from a thousand shores 
Wafts all the pomp of life into your ports ; 
So with superior boon may your rich soil, 
Exuberant, Nature's better blessings pour 
O'er every land, the naked nations clothe, 
And be th' exhaustless granary of a world ! 

Nor on!y through the lenient air this change, 
Delicious, breathes ; the penetrative sun, 
His force deep-darting to the dark retreat 
Of vegetation, sets the steaming Power 
At large, to wander o'er the verdant earth; 



18 SPRING. 

In various kues ; but chiefly thee, gay green ! 
Thou smiling Nature's universal robe ! 
United light and shade ! where the sight dwells 
With growing strength, and ever-new delight. 

From the moist meadow to the wither' d bill,. 
Led by the breeze, the vivid verdure runs, 
And swells, and deepens, to the cherish'd eye. 
The hawthorn whitens ; and the juicy groves 
Put forth their buds, unfolding by degrees, 
Till the whole leafy forest stands display'd, 
In full luxuriance, to the sighing gales ; 
Where the deer rustles through the twining brake? 
And the birds sing conceal'd. At once array'd 
In all the colours of the flushing year, 
By Nature's swift and secret working hand, 
The garden glows, and fills the liberal air 
With lavish fragrance ; while the promis'd fruit 
Lies yet a little embryo, unperceiv'd, 
Within its crimson folds. Now from the town. 
Buried in smoke, and sleep, and noisome damps, 
Oft let me wander o'er the dewy fields, [drops 

Where freshness breathes, and dash the trembling 
From the bent bush, as through the verdant maze 
Of sweetbriar hedges I pursue my walk ; 
Or taste the smell of dairy ; or ascend 
Some eminence, Augusta, in thy plains, 
\nd see the country, far diffus'd around, 
One boundless blush, one white-empurpled shower 
Of mingled blossoms; where the rapture! eye 



■» 



SPRING. 19 

Hurries from joy to joy, and, bid beneath 
The fair profusion, yellow Autumn spies: 

If, brush'd from Russian wilds, a cutting gale 
Rise not, and scatter from his humid wings 
The clammy mildew; or, dry-blowing, breathe 
Untimely frost ; before whose baleful blast 
The full-blown Spring through all her foliage shrinks, 
Joyless and dead, a wide-dejected waste. 
For oft, engenderd by the hazy north, 
Myriads on myriads, insect armies warp 
Keen in the poison'd breeze; anjd wasteful eat, 
Through buds and bark, into the blacken'd core, 
Their eager way. A feeble race ! yet oft 
The sacred sons of vengeance; on whose course 
Corrosive Famine waits, and kills the year. 
To check this plague, the skilful farmer chaff 
And blazing straw, before his orchard burns; 
Till, all involv'd in smoke, the latent foe 
From every cranny suffocated falls : 
Or scatters o'er the blooms the pungent dust 
Of pepper, fatal to the frosty tribe : 
Or, when th' envenom'd leaf begins to curl, 
With sprinkled water drowns them in their nest 3 
Nor, while they pick them up with busy bill, 
The little trooping birds unwisely scares. 

Be patient, swains; these cruel seeming winds 
Blow not in vain. Far hence they keep repress'd 
Those deep'ning clouds on clouds, surcharg'd with 
That o'er the vast Atlantic hither borne. [rain ; 



20 SPRING. 

In endless train, would quench the summer-blaze, 
And, cheerless, drown the crude unripen'd year. 

The north-east spends his rage; he now shut up 
Within his iron cave, the effusive south 
Warms the wide air, and o'er the void of heaven 
Breathes the big clouds with vernal showers distent. 
At first a dusky wreath they seem to rise, 
Scarce staining ether ; but by swift degrees, 
In heaps on heaps, the doubling vapour sails 
Along the loaded sky, and mingling deep, 
Sits on th' horizon round a settled gloom : 
Not such as wintry-storms on mortals shed, 
Oppressing life ; but lovely, gentle, kind, 
And full of every hope and every joy, 
The wish of Nature. Gradual sinks the breeze 
Into a perfect calm ; that not a breath 
Is heard to quiver through the closing woods, 
Or rustling turn the many-twinkling leaves 
Of aspin tall. Th' uncurling floods, diffiis'd 
In glassy breadth, seem through delusive lapse- 
Forgetful of their course. 'Tis silence all, 
And pleasing expectation. Herds and flocks 
Drop the dry sprig, and mute-imploring eye 
The falling verdure. Hush'd in short suspense, 
The plumy people streak their wings with oil, 
To throw the lucid moisture trickling off: 
And wait th' approaching sign to strike, at once, 
Into the general choir. Even mountains, vales, 
And forests seem, impatient, to demand 



SPRING. 21 

The promis'd sweetness. Man superior walks 

Amid the glad creation, musing praise, 

And looking lively gratitude. At last, 

The clouds consign their treasures to the fields \ 

And, softly shaking on the dimpled pool 

Prelusive drops, let all their moisture flow, 

In large effusion, o'er the freshened world. 

The stealing shower is scarce to patter heard, 

By such as wander through the forest walks, 

Beneath th' umbrageous multitude of leaves. 

But who can hold the shade, while Heaven descends 

In universal bounty, shedding herbs, 

And fruits, and flowers, on Nature's ample lap? 

Swift Fancy fir'd, anticipates their growth ; 

And, while the milky nutriment distils, 

Beholds the kindling country colour round. 

Thus all day long the full-distended clouds 
Indulge their genial stores, and well shower 'd earth 
Is deep enrich'd with vegetable life ; 
Till, in the western sky, the downward sun 
Looks out, effulgent, from amid the flush 
Of broken clouds, gay shifting to his beam. 
The rapid radiance instantaneous strikes 
Th' illumin'd mountain through the forest streams, 
Shakes on the floods, and in a yellow mist, 
Far smoking o'er th' interminable plain, 
In twinkling myriads lights the dewy gems. 
Moist, bright, and green, the landscape laughs around . 
Full swell the woods j their very music wakes, 



22 SPRING. 

Mix'd in wild concert with the warbling "brooks 

Increas'd, the distant bleatings of the hills, 

And hollow lows responsive from the vales, 

Whence blending all the sweeten'd zephyr springs* 

Meantime, refracted from yon eastern cloud, 

Bestriding earth, the grand ethereal bow 

Shoots up immense ; and every hue unfolds, 

In fair proportion running from the red, 

To where the violet fades into the sky. 

Here, awful Newton, the dissolving clouds 

Form, fronting on the sun, thy showery prism ; 

And to the sage -instructed eye unfold 

The various twine of light, by thee disclos'd 

From the white mingling maze. Not so the boy ; 

He wondering views the bright enchantment bend^ 

Delightful, o'er the radiant fields, and runs 

To catch the falling glory ; but amaz'd 

Beholds th' amusive arch before him fly, 

Then vanish quite away. Still night succeeds, 

A soften'd shade, and saturated earth 

Awaits the morning-beam, to give to light, 

Rais'd through ten thousand different plastic tubes, 

The balmy treasures of the former day. 

Then spring the living herbs, profusely wild, 
O'er all the deep-green earth, beyond the power 
Of botanists to number up their tribes : 
Whether he steals along the lonely dale, 
In silent search ; or through the forest, rank 
With what the dull incurious weeds account, 



SPRING. 23 

Bursts his blind way ; or climbs the mountain rock, 
Fir'd by the nodding verdure of its brow. 
With such a liberal hand has nature flung 
Their seeds abroad, blown them about in winds, 
Innumerous mixed them with the nursing mould, 
The moistening current, and prolific rain. 

But who their virtues can declare ? who pierce, 
With vision pure, into these secret stores 
Of health, and life, and joy ? the food of Man, 
While yet he liv'd in innocence, and told 
A length of golden years ; unflesh'd in blood, 
A stranger to the savage arts of life, 
Death, rapine, carnage, surfeit, and disease ; 
The lord, and not the tyrant, of the world. 

The first fresh dawn then wak'd the gladden'd race 
Of uncorrupted Man, nor blush'd to see 
The sluggard sleep beneath its sacred beam ; 
For their light slumbers gently fum'd away ; 
And up they rose as vigorous as the sun, 
Or to the culture of the willing glebe, 
Or to the cheerful tendance of the flock. 
Meantime the song went round ; and dance and sport, 
Wisdom and friendly talk, successive, stole 
Their hours away : while in the rosy vale 
Love breath'd his infant sighs, from anguish free, 
And full replete with bliss ; save the sweet pain, 
That inly thrilling, but exalts it more. 
Not yet injurious act, nor surly deed, 
Was kuQwn among those happy sons of heaven; 



24 SPRING. 

For reason and benevolence were law. 
Harmonious Nature too look'd smiling on. 
Clear shone the skies, cool'd with eternal gales, 
And balmy spirit all. The youthful sun 
Shot his best rays, and still the gracious clouds 
Drop'd fatness down ; as o'er the swelling mead, 
The herds and flocks, commixing, play'd secure. 
This when, emergent from the gloomy wood, 
The glaring lion saw, his horrid heart 
Was meeken'd, and he join'd his sullen joy. 
For music held the whole in perfect peace : 
Soft sigh'd the flute ; the tender voice was heard, 
Warbling the varied heart ; the woodlands round 
Apply'd their quire ; and winds and waters flow'd 
In consonance. Such were those prime of days. 

But now those white unblemish'd manners, whence 
The fabling poets took their golden age, 
Are found no more amid these iron times, 
These dregs of life ! now the distemper'd mind 
Has lost that concord of harmonious powers, 
Which forms the soul of happiness ; and all 
Is off the poise within : the passions all 
Have burst their bounds ; and reason, half extinct, 
Or impotent, or else approving, sees 
The foul disorder. Senseless, and deform'd, 
Convulsive anger storms at large ; or pale, 
And silent, settles into fell revenge. 
Base envy withers at another's joy, 
And hates that excellence it cannot reach. 



SPRING. 25 

Desponding fear, of feeble fancies full, 

Weak and unmanly, loosens every power. 

Ev'n love itself is bitterness of soul, 

A pensive anguish pining at the heart ; 

Or, sunk to sordid interest, feels no more 

That noble wish, that never cloy'd desire, 

Which, selfish joy disdaining, seeks alone 

To bless the dearer object of its flame. 

Hope sickens with extravagance ; and grief, 

Of life impatient, into madness swells ; 

Or in dead : silence wastes the weeping hours. 

These, and a thousand mixt emotions more, 

From ever-changing views of good and ill, 

Form'd infinitely various, vex the mind 

With endless storm : whence, deeply rankling, grows 

The partial thought, a listless unconcern, 

Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good ; 

Then dark disgust, and hatred, winding wiles. 

Coward deceit, and ruffian violence : 

At last, extinct each social feeling, fell 

And joyless inhumanity pervades 

And petrifies the heart. Nature disturbed 

Is deem'd, vindictive, to have chang'd her course. 

Hence, in old dusky time, a deluge came : 
When the deep-cleft disparting orb, that arch'd 
The central waters round, impetuous rush'd, 
With universal burst, into the gulf, 
And o'er the high-piPd hills of fractured earth 
Wide dash'd the waves, in undulation vast : 



25 SPRING. 

Till, from the centre to the streaming clouds, 
A shoreless ocean tumbled round the globe. 

The Seasons since have, with severer sway, 
Oppress'd a broken world : the Winter keen 
Shook forfh his waste of snows ; and Summer shot 
His pestilential heats. Great Spring, before, 
Green'dall the year ; and fruits and blossoms blush'd, 
In social sweetness, on the self-same bough. 
Pure was the temperate air ; an even calm 
Perpetual reign'd, save what the zephyrs bland 
Breath 'd o'er the blue expanse : for then nor storms 
Were taught to blow, nor hurricanes to rage ; 
Sound slept the waters : no sulphureous glooms 
Svvell'd in the sky, and sent the lightning forth ; 
While sickly damps, and cold autumnal fogs, 
Hung not, relaxing, on the springs of life. 
But now, of turbid elements the sport, 
From clear to cloudy tost, from hot to cold, 
And dry to moist, with inward-eating change, 
Our drooping days are dwindled down to noughts 
Their period finish'd ere 'tis well begun. 

And yet the wholesome herb neglected dies ; 
Though with the pure exhilarating soul 
Of nutriment and health, and vital powers, 
Beyond the search of art, 'tis copious blest 
For, with hot ravine fir'd, ensanguin'd Man 
Is now become the lion of the plain, 
And worse. The wolf, who from the nightly fold 
Fierce drags the bleating prey, ne'er drunk her milk, 



SPRING. 27 

Nor wore her warming fleece : nor has the steer, 

At whose strong chest the deadly tiger hangs, 

E'er plough'd for him. They too are temper'd high, 

With hunger stung and wild necessity, 

Nor lodges pity in their shaggy breast. 

But Man, whom Nature form'd of milder clay, 

With every kind emotion in his heart, 

And taught alone to weep ; while from her lap 

She pours ten thousand delicacies, herbs, 

And fruits, as numerous as the drops of rain 

Or beams that gave them birth : shall he, fair form ! 

Who wears sweet smiles, and looks erect on heaven, 

E'er stoop to mingle with the prowling herd, 

And dip his tongue in gore ? the beast of prey, 

Blood-stain'd, deserves to bleed : but you, ye flocks 

What have you done ; ye peaceful people, what, 

To merit death ? you, who have given us milk 

In luscious streams, and lent us your own coat 

Against the Winter's cold ? and the plain ox> 

That harmless, honest, guileless animal, 

In what has he offended ? he, whose toil,. 

Patient and ever ready, clothes the land 

With all the pomp of harvest ; shall he bleed, 

And struggling groan beneath the cruel hands 

Even of the clown he feeds ? and that, perhaps, 

To swell the riot of th' autumnal feast, 

Won by his labour ? thus the feeling heart 

Would tenderly suggest : but 'tis enough, 

In this late age, adventurous, to have touch'd 



28 SPRING. 

Light on the numbers of the Samian sage. 
High Heaven forbids the bold presumptuous strain, 
Whose wisest will has fix'd us in a state- 
That must not yet to pure perfection rise. 

Now when the first foul torrent of the brooks, 
S well'd with the vernal rains, is ebb'd away, 
And, whitening, down their mossy-tinctur'd stream 
Descends the billowy foam : now is the time, 
While yet the dark-brown water aids the guile, 
To tempt the trout. The well -dissembled fly, 
The rod fine-tapering with elastic spring, 
Snatch 'd from the hoary steed the floating line, 
And all thy slender wat'ry stores prepare. 
But let not on thy hook the tortur'd worm, 
Convulsive, twist in agonizing folds ; 
Which, by rapacious hunger swallow'd deep, 
Gives, as you tear it from the bleeding breast 
Of the weak helpless uncomplaining wretch, 
Harsh pain and horror to the tender hand. 

When with his lively ray the potent sun 
Has pierc'd the streams, androus'd the finny race. 
Then, issuing cheerful, to thy sport repair ; 
Chief should the western breezes curling play, 
And light o'er ether bear the shadowy clouds. 
Higb to their fount, this day, amid the hills, 
And woodlands warbling round, trace up the brooks^ 
The next, pursue their rocky channel'd maze, 
Down to the river, in whose ample wave 
Their little naiads love to sport at large.. 



SPRING. 29 

Just in the dubious point, where with the pool 
Is mix'd the trembling stream, or where it boils 
Around the stone, or from the hallow'd bank 
Reverted plays in undulating flow, 
There throw, nice-judging, the delusive fly; 
And as you lead it round in artful curve, 
With eye attentive mark the springing game. 
Straight as above the surface of the flood 
They wanton rise, or urg'd by hunger leap, 
Then fix, with gentle twitch, the barbed hook : 
Some lightly tossing to the grassy bank, 
And to the shelving shore slow-dragging some, 
With various hand, proportion'd to their force. 
If yet too young, and easily deceiv'd, 
A worthless prey scarce bends your pliant rod, 
Him, piteous of his youth and the short space 
He has enjoy'd the vital light of heaven, 
Soft disengage, and back into the stream 
The speckled captive throw. But should you lure 
From his dark haunt, beneath the tangled roots 
Of pendent trees, the monarch of the brook, 
Behoves you then to ply your finest art* 
Long time he, following cautious, scans the fly ; 
And oft attempts to seize it, but as oft 
The dimpled water speaks his jealous fear. 
At last, while haply o'er the shaded sun 
Passes a cloud, he desperate takes the death, 
With sullen plunge. At once he darts along, 
r>eep-s(nick ; and runs out all the lengthened line ; 
3* 



30 SPRING. 

Then seeks the furthest ooze, the sheltering weed. 
The cavern'd bank, his old secure abode ; 
And flies aloft, and flounces round the pool, 
Indignant of the guile. With yielding hand, 
That feels him still, yet to his furious course 
Gives way, you, now retiring, following now 
Across the stream, exhaust his idle rage : 
Till floating broad upon his breathless side. 
And to his fate abandon'd, to the shore 
You gaily drag your unresisting prize- 
Thus pass the temperate hours ; but when the sun 
Shakes from his noon-day throne the scat'ring clouds, 
Even shooting listless languor through the deeps ; 
Then seek the bank where flowering elders crowd, 
Where scatter d wild the lily of the vale 
Its balmy essence breathes, where cowslips hang 
The dewy head, where purple violets lurk, 
With all the lowly children of the shade : 
Or lie reclin'd beneath yon spreading ash, 
Hung o'er the steep ; whence, borne on liquid wing. 
The sounding culver shoots; or where the hawk, 
High, in the beetling cliff, his eyry builds. 
There let the classic page thy fancy lead 
Through rural scenes ; such as the Mantuan swain 
Paints in the matchless harmony of song. 
Or catch thyself the landscape, gliding swift 
Athwart imaginations vivid eye : 
Or by the vocaj woods and waters lull'd. 



SPRING. 31 

And lost in lonely musing, in the dream, 
Confus'd, of careless solitude, where mix 
Ten thousand wandering images of things, 
Sooth every gust of passion into peace ; 
All but the swellings of the soften'd heart, 
That waken, not disturb, the tranquil mind. 

Behold yon breathing prospect bids the Muse 
Throw all her beauty forth. But who can paint 
Like Nature ? Can imagination boast, 
Amid its gay creation, hues like hers ? 
Or can it mix them with that matchless skill, 
And lose them in each other, as appears 
In every bud that blows ? If fancy then 
Unequal fails beneath the pleasing task, 
Ah, what shall language do ? Ah, where find words 
Ting'd with so many colours and whose power* 
To life approaching, may perfume my lays 
With that fine oil, those aromatic gales, 
That inexhaustive flow continual round ? 

Yet, though successless, will the toil delight. 
Come then, ye virgins and ye youths, whose hearts 
Have felt the raptures of refining love ; 
And thou, Amanda, come, pride of my song; 
Form'd by the Graces, loveliness itself! 
Come with those downcast eyes, sedate and sweet, 
Those looks demure, that deeply pierce the soul, 
Where, with the light of thoughtful reason mix'd, 
Shines lively fancy and the feeling heart : 
Oh come ! and while the rosy-footed May 



32 SPRING. 

Steals blushing on, together let us tread 
The morning dews, and gather in their prime 
Fresh-blooming flowers, to grace thy braided hair,. 
And thy lov'd bosom that improves their sweets. 

See, where the winding vale its lavish stores, 
Irriguous, spreads. See how the lily drinks 
The latent rill, scarce oozing through the grass, 
Of growth luxuriant ;. or the humid bank, 
In fair profusion, decks. Long let us walk, 
"Where the breeze blows from yon extended field 
Of blossom'd beans. Arabia cannot boast 
A fuller gale of joy, than, liberal, thence 
Breathes through the sense, and takes the ravish'd 
Nor is the mead unworthy of thy foot, [souL 

Full of fresh verdure, tind unnumberd flowers, 
The negligence of Nature, wide, and wild; 
Where, undisguised by mimic Art, she spreads 
Unbounded beauty to the roving eye. 
Here their delicious task the fervent bees, 
In. swarming millions, tend around, athwart, 
Through the soft air the busy nations fly, 
Cling to the bud, and with inserted tube, 
Suck its pure essence, its ethereal soul ; 
And oft, with bolder wing they soaring dare 
The purple heath, or where the wild thyme grows. 
And yellow load them with the luscious spoil. 

At length the finish 'd garden to the view 
Its vistas opens, and its alleys green. 
Snatch'd through the verdant maze, the hurried eye 



SPRING. 33 

Distracted wanders ; now the bowery walk 

Of covert close, where scarce a speck of day 

Falls on the lengthen'd gloom, protracted sweeps : 

Now meets the bending sky; the river now 

Dimpling along, the breezy ruffled lake, 

The forest darkening round, the glittering spire, 

Th' ethereal mountain, and the distant main, 

But why so far excursive ? when at hand, 

Along these blushing borders, bright with dew, 

And in yon mingled wilderness of flowers, 

Fair-handed Spring unbosoms every grace ; 

Throws out the snowdrop, and the crocus first; 

The daisy, primrose, violet darkly blue, 

And polyanthus of unnumbered dyes ; 

The yelloAV wall-flower, stain'd with iron brown ; 

And lavish stock that scents the garden round : 

From the soft wing of vernal breezes shed, 

Anemonies ; auriculas, enrich'd 

With shining meal o'er all their velvet leaves ; 

And full ranunculas, of glowing red. 

Then comes the tulip-race, where Beauty plays 

Her idle freaks : from family diffus'd 

To family, as flies the father-dust, 

The varied colours run ; and, while they break 

On the charm'd eye, th' exulting florist marks, 

With secret pride, the wonders of his hand. 

IS T o gradual bloom is wanting ; from the bud, 

First-born of Spring, to Summer's musky tribes . 

Nor hyacinths, of purest virgin white, 



34 SPRING. 

Low-bent, and blushing inward ; nor jonquillesr,. 
Of potent fragrance ; nor narcissus fair, 
As o'er the fabled fountain hanging still ; 
Nor broad carnations, nor gay-spotted pinks ; 
3N T or shower'd from every bush, the damask-rose. 
Infinite numbers, delicacies, smells, 
With hues on hues expression cannot paint,. 
The breath of Nature, and her endless bloom. 

Hail, Source of Being I Universal Soul 
Of heaven and earth ! Essential Presence, hail ! 
To Thee I bend the knee ; to Thee my thoughts, 
Continual, climb ; who, with a master hand, 
Hast the great whole into perfection touch'd. 
By Thee the various vegetative tribes, 
Wrapt in a filmy net, and clad with leaves, 
Draw the live ether, and imbibe the dew : 
By Thee dispos'd into congenial soils, 
Stands each attractive plant, and sucks, and swells 
The juicy tide ; a twinging mass of tubes. 
At Thy command the vernal sun awakes 
The torpid sap, detruded to the root 
By wintry winds ; that now in fluent dance, 
And lively fermentation, mounting, spreads 
All this in numerous-coloured scene of things. 

As rising from the vegetable world 
My theme ascends, with equal wing ascend, 
My panting Muse ; and hark, how loud the woods 
Invite you forth in all your gayest trim. 
Lend me your song, ye nightingales ! Oh, pour 



SPRING* 



33 



The mazy-running soul of melody 
Into my varied verse ! while I deduce, 
From the first note the hollow cuckoo sings, 
The symphony of Spring, and touch a theme 
Unknown to fame, — the Passion of the Groves. 

When first the soul of love is sent abroad, 
Warm through the vital air, and on the heart 
Harmonious seizes, the gay troops begin, 
In gallant thought, to plume the painted wing; 
And try again the long forgotten-strain, 
At first faint-warbled. But no sooner grows 
The soft infusions prevalent, and wide, 
Than, all alive, at once their joy o'erflows 
In music unconfin'd. Up-springs the lark, 
Shrill- voic'd, and loud, the messenger of morn ; 
Ere yet the shadows fly, he mounted sings 
Amid the dawning clouds, and from their haunts 
Calls up the tuneful nations. Every copse 
Deep-tangled, tree irregular, and bush 
Bending with dewy moisture, e'er the heads 
Of the coy quiristers that lodge within, 
Are prodigal of harmony. The thrush 
And woodlark, o'er the kind-contending throng 
Superior heard, run through the sweetest length 
Of notes; when listening Philomela deigns 
To let them joy, and purposes, in thought 
Elate, to make her night excel their day. 
The black-bird whistles from the thorny brake \ 
The mellow bullfinch answers from the grove : 



36 SPRING. 

Nor are the linnets, o'er the flowering furze 
Pour'd out profusely, silent. Join'd to these 
Innumerous songsters, in the freshening shade 
Of new-sprung leaves, their modulations mis 
Mellifluous. The jay, the rook, the daw, 
And each harsh pipe, discordant heard alone, 
Aid the full concert: while the stock-dove breathes 
A melancholy murmur through the whole. 

'Tis love creates their melody, and all 
This waste of music is the voice of love ; 
That even to birds and beasts, the tender arts 
Of pleasing teaches. Hence the glossy kind 
Try every winning way inventive love 
Can dictate, and in courtship to their mates 
Pour forth their little souls. First wide around, 
With distant awe, in airy rings they rove, 
Endeavouring by a thousand tricks to catch 
The cunning, conscious, half-averted glance 
Of the regardless charmer Should she seem, 
Softening, the least approvance to bestow, 
Their colours burnish, and by hope inspir'd, 
They brisk advance ; then, on a sudden struck, 
Retire disordered ; then again approach ; 
In fond rotation spread the spotted wing, 
And shiver every feather with desire. 

Connubial leagues agreed, to the deep woods 
They haste away, all as their fancy leads, 
Pleasure, or food, or secret safety prompts ; 
That nature's great command may be obey'd:. 



SPRING. 37 

JNor all the sweet sensations they perceive 

Indulg'd in vain. Some to the holly-hedge 

Nestling repair, and to the thicket some ; 

Some to the rude protection of the thorn 

Commit their feeble offspring. The cleft tree 

Offers its kind concealment to a few, 

Their food its insects, and its moss their nests. 

•Others apart far in the grassy dale, 

Or roughening waste, their humble texture weave. 

But most in woodland solitudes delight, 

In unfrequented glooms, or shaggy banks, 

Steep, and divided by a babbling brook, 

Whose murmurs sooth them all the live-long day, 

When by kind duty fix'd. Among the roots 

Of hazel, pendent o'er the plaintive stream, 

They frame the first foundation of their domes ; 

Dry sprigs of trees, in artful fabric laid, 

And bound with clay together. Now 'tis nought 

But restless hurry through the busy air, 

Beat by unnumbered wings. The swallow sweeps 

The slimy pool, to build his hanging house 

Intent. And often, from the careless back 

Of herds and flocks, a thousand tugging bills 

Pluck hair and wool; and oft, when unobserv'd. 

Steal from the barn a straw : till soft and warm, 

Clean and complete, their habitation grows. 

As thus the patient dam assiduous sits, 
Not to be tempted from her tender task, 
Or by sharp hunger, or by smooth delight, 
4 



38 SPRING. 

Though the whole loosen'd Spring around her blows, 

Her sympathizing lover takes his stand 

High on th' opponent bank, and ceaseless sings 

The tedious time away ; or else supplies 

tier place a moment, while she sudden flits 

To pick the scanty meal. Th' appointed time 

With pious toil fulnlPd, the callow young, 

Warm'd and expanded into perfect life, 

Their brittle bondage break, and come to light,. 

A helpless family, demanding food 

With constant clamour : O what passions then, 

What melting sentiments of kindly care, 

On the new parents seize ! Away they fly 

Affectionate, and undesiring bear 

The most delicious morsel to their young ; 

Which equally distributed, again 

The search begins. Ev'n so a gentle pair, 

By fortune sunk, but form'd of generous mould, 

And charm'd with cares beyond the vulgar breast. 

In some lone cot amid the distant woods, 

Sustain'd alone by providential Heaven, 

Oft, as they weeping eye their infant train, 

Check their own appetites, and give them all. 

Nor toil alone they scorn : exalting love, 
By the great Father of the Spring inspir'd, 
Gives instant courage to the fearful race, 
And to the simple art. With stealthy wing, 
Should some rude foot their woody haunts molest, 
Amid a neighbouring bush they silent drop. 



SPRING. 39 

And whirring thence, as if alarm'd, deceive 

Th' unfeeling school-boy. Hence, around the head 

Of wandering swain, the white-wing'd plover wheels 

Her sounding flight, and then directly on 

In long excursion skims the level lawn, 

To tempt him from her nest. The wild-duck, hence, 

O'er the rough moss, and o'er the trackless waste 

The heath-hen flutters, pious fraud ! to lead 

The hot pursuing spaniel far astray. 

Be not the Muse asham'd here to bemoan 
Her brothers of the grove, by tyrant Man 
Inhuman caught, and in the narrow cage 
From liberty confin'd, and boundless air. 
Dull are the pretty slaves, their plumage dull, 
Ragged, and all its brightening lustre lost ; 
Nor is that sprightly wildness in their notes, 
Which, clear and vigorous, warbles from the beech. 
O then, ye friends of love and love-taught song, 
Spare the soft tribes, this barbarous art forbear ; 
If on your bosom innocence can win, 
Music engage , or piety persuade. 

But let not chief the nightingale lament 
Her ruin'd care, too delicately fram'd 
To brook the harsh confinement of the cage. 
Oft when, returning with her loaded bill, 
Th' astonish'd mother finds a vacant nest, 
By the hard hand of unrelenting clowns 
Robb'd, to the ground the vain provision falls ; 
Her pinions ruffle, and, low-drooping, scarce 



40 SPRING. 

Can bear the mourner to the poplar shade ; 

Where, all abandon 'd to despair, she sings 

Her sorrows through the night ; and, on the bough, 

Sole-sitting, still at every dying fall 

Takes up again her lamentable strain 

Of winding woe ; till, wide around, the woods 

Sigh to her song, and with her wail resound. 

But now the feather'd youth their former bounds, 
Ardent, disdain ; and, weighing oft their wings, 
Demand the free possession of the sky : 
This one glad office more, and then dissolves 
Parental love at once, now needless grown. 
Unlavish Wisdom never works in vain. 
'Tis on some evening, sunny, grateful, mild, 
When nought but balm is breathing through the woods, 
With yellow lustre bright, that the new tribes 
Visit the spacious heavens, and look abroad 
On Nature's common, far as they can see, 
Or wing, their range and pasture. O'er the boughs 
Dancing about, still at the giddy verge 
Their resolution fails ; their pinions still, 
In loose liberation stretch'd, to trust the void 
Trembling refuse : till down before them fly 
The parent guides, and chide, exhort, command, 
Or push them off. The surging air receives 
Its plumy burden ; and their self-taught wings 
Winnow the waving element. On ground 
Alighted, bolder up again they lead, 
Farther and farther on, the lengthening flight j 



SPRING. 41 

Till vanish'd every fear, and every power 
Rous'd into life and action, light in air 
Th' acquitted parents see their soaring race, 
And, once rejoicing, never know them more 

High from the summit of a craggy cliff, 
Hung o'er the deep, such as amazing frowns 
On utmost Kilda's* shore, whose lonely race 
Kesign the setting sun to Indian worlds, 
The royal eagle draws his vigorous young, 
Strong-pounc'd, and ardent with paternal fire. 
Kow fit to raise a kingdom of their own, 
He drives them from his fort, the towering seat, 
For ages, of his empire ; which, in peace, 
Unstain'd he holds, while many a league to sea 
He wings his course, and preys in distant isles- 

Should I my steps turn to the rural seat, 
Whose lofty elms, and venerable oaks, 
Invite the rook, who high amid the boughs, 
In early Spring, his airy city builds, 
And ceaseless caws amusive ; there, well-pleas'd, 
I might the various polity survey 
Of the mixt household kind. The careful hen 
Calls all her chirping family around, 
Fed and defended by the fearless cock ; 
Whose breast with ardour flames, as on he walks,. 
Graceful, and crows defiance. In the pond, 
The finely-checker'd duck, before her train, 

* The farthest of the western islands of Scotland. 

4* 



42 SPRING. 

Rows garrulous. The stately-sailing sw&tf 

Gives out his snowy plumage to the gale ; 

And, arching proud his neck, with oary feet 

Bears forward fierce, and guards his osier-isle, 

Protective of his young. The turkey nigh, 

Loud-threatening,reddens; while the peacock spreads 

His every-colour'd glory to the sun, 

And swims in radient majesty along. 

O'er the whole homely scene, the cooing dove 

Flies thick in amorous chase, and wanton rolls 

The glancing eye, and turns the changeful neck. 

While thus the gentle tenants of the shade 
Indulge their purer loves, the rougher world 
Of brutes, below, rush furious into flame, 
And fierce desire. Through all his lusty veins 
The bull, deep-scorch'd, the raging passion feels. 
Of pasture sick, and negligent of food, 
Scarce seen, he wades among the yellow broom, 
While o'er his ample sides the rambling sprays 
Luxuriant shoot ; or through the mazy wood 
Dejected wanders, nor th' enticing bud 
Crops, though it presses on his careless sense. 
And oft, in jealous mad'ning fancy wrapt, 
He seeks the fight ; and, idly-butting, feigns 
His rival gor'd in every knotty trunk. 
Him should he meet, the bellowing war begins: 
Their eyes flash fury ; to the hollovv'd earth, 
Whence the sand flies, they mutter bloody deeds. 
And groaning deep, th' impetuous battle mis.; 






SPRING. 43 

While the fair heifer, balmy-breathing, near, 

Stands kindling up their rage. The trembling steed, 

With this hot impulse seized in every nerve, 

Nor heeds the rein, nor hears the sounding thong ; 

Blows are not felt ; but tossing high his head, 

And by the well-known joy to distant plains 

Attracted strong, all wild he bursts away ; 

O'er rocks, and woods, and craggy mountains flies ; 

And, neighing, on th' aerial summit takes 

Th' exciting gale ; then, steep-descending, cleaves 

The headlong torrents foaming down the hills, 

Ev'n where the madness of the straiten'd stream 

Turns in black eddies round : such is the force 

With which his frantic heart and sinews swell. 

Nor undelighted by the boundless Spring 
Are the broad monsters of the foaming deept 
From the deep ooze and gelid cavern rous'd, 
They flounce and tumble in unwieldy joy. 
Dire were the strain, and dissonant, to sing 
The cruel raptures of the savage kind : 
How by this flame their native wrath sublim'd, 
They roam, amid the fury of their heart, 
The far-resounding waste in fiercer bands, 
And growl their horrid loves. But this the theme 
I sing, enraptur'd, to the British Fair, 
Forbids, and leads me to the mountain-brow, 
Where sits the shepherd on the grassy turf, 
Inhaling, healthful, the descending sun. 
Around him feeds his many-bleating flock, 



44 SPRING. 

Of various cadence ; and his sportive lambs* 
This way and that convolv'd, in friskful glee, 
Their frolics play. And now the sprightly race 
Invites them forth ; when swift, the signal given* 
They start away, and sweep the massy mound 
That runs around the hill ; the rampart once 
Of iron war, in ancient barbarous times, 
When disunited Britain ever bled, 
Lost in eternal broil : ere yet she grew 
To this deep-laid indissoluble state, 
Where Wealth and Commerce lift their golden heads} 
And o'er our labours, Liberty and Law, 
Impartial, watch ; the wonder of a world ! 
What is this mighty breath, ye sages, say, 
That, in a powerful language, felt, not heard, 
Instructs the fowls of heaven; and through their breast 
These arts of love diffuses ? What, but God ? 
Inspiring God ! who, boundless Spirit all, 
And unremitting Energy, pervades, 
Adjusts, sustains, and agitates the whole. 
He ceaseless works alone ; and yet alone 
Seems not to work : with such perfection fram'd 
Is this complex stupendous scheme of things. 
But, though conceal'd, to every purer eye 
Th' informing Author in his works appears : 
Chief, lovely Spring, in thee, and thy soft scene?, 
The Smiling God is seen ; while water, earth, 
And air, attest his bounty ; which exalts 
The brute-creation to this finer thought, 



SPRING. 45 

And annual melts their imdesigning hearts 
Profusely thus in tenderness and joy. 

Still let my song a nobler note assume, 
And sing th' infusive force of Spring on man ; 
When heaven and earth, as if contending, vie 
To raise his being, and serene his soul. 
Can he forbear to join the general smile 
Of Nature ? Can fierce passions vex his breast, 
While every gale is peace, and every grove 
Is melody ? hence ! from the bounteous walks 
Of flowering Spring, ye sordid sons of earth, 
Hard, and unfeeling of another's woe ; 
Or only lavish to yourselves ; away ! 
But come, ye generous minds, in whose wide thought, 
Of all his works, creative Bounty burns 
With warmest beam ; and on your open front 
And liberal eye, sits, from his dark retreat 
Inviting modest Want. Nor. till invok'd, 
Can restless goodness wait ; your active search 
Leaves no cold wintry corner unexplor'd ; 
Like silent-working Heaven, surprising oft 
The lonely heart with unexpected good. 
For you the roving spirit of the wind 
Blows Spring abroad ; for you the teeming clouds 
Descend in gladsome plenty o'er the world; 
And the sun sheds his kindest rays for you, 
Ye flower of human race ! in these green days, 
Reviving Sickness lifts her languid head ; 
fife flows afresh ) and young-eyed Health exalts 



46 SPRING. 

The whole creation roun$. Contentment walks 
The sunny glade, and feels an inward bliss 
Spring o'er his mind, beyond the power of kings 
To purchase. Pure serenity apace 
Induces thought, and contemplation still. 
By swift degrees the love of Nature works 
And warms the bosom ; till at last sublim'd 
To rapture, and enthusiastic heat, 
We feel the present Deity, and taste 
The joy of God to see a happy world! 

These are the sacred feelings of thy heart, 
Thy heart inform 'd by reason's purer ray, 
O Lyttleton, the friend ! thy passions thus 
And meditations vary, as at large, 
Courting the Muse, thro' Hagley Park thou stray'st ; 
Thy British Tempe ! there along the dale, 
With woods o'er-hung, and shagg'd with mossy rocks, 
Whence on each hand the gushing waters play, 
And down the rough cascade white-dashing fall, 
Or gleam in lengthen'd vista through the trees, 
You silent steal ; or sit beneath the shade 
Of solemn oaks, that tuft the swelling mounts 
Thrown graceful round by Nature's careless hand, 
And pensive listen to the various voice 
Of rural peace : the herds, the flocks, the birds, 
The hollow-whispering breeze, the plaint of rilts, 
That, purling down amid the twisted roots 
Which creep around, their dewy murmurs shake 
On the sooth'd ear. From these abstracted oft, 



SPRING. 4? 

You wander through the philosophic world ; 

Where in bright train continual wonders rise, 

Or to the curious or the pious eye. 

And oft, conducted by historic truth, 

You tread the long extent of backward time : 

Planning, with warm benevolence of mind, 

And honest zeal unwarp'd by party-rage, 

Britannia's weal ; how from the venal gulf 

To raise her virtue, and her arts revive. 

Or, turning thence thy view, these graver thoughts 

The Muses charm : while, with sure taste refin'd 

You draw th' inspiring breath of ancient song ; 

Till nobly rises, emulous, thy own. 

Perhaps thy lov'd Lucinda shares thy walk, 

With soul to thine attun'd. Then Nature all 

Wears to the lover's eye a look of love ; 

And all the tumult of a guilty world, 

Tost by ungenerous passions, sinks away. 

The tender heart is animated peace ; 

And as it pours its copious treasures forth, 

In varied converse, softening every theme, 

You, frequent-pausing, turn, and from her eyes, 

Where meeken'd sense, and amiable grace, 

And lively sweetness, dwell, enraptur'd, drink 

That nameless spirit of ethereal joy, 

Unutterable happiness ! which love, 

Alone, bestows, and on a favour'd few. 

Meantime you gain the height, from whose fair brow 

The bursting prospect spreads immense around : 



48 SPRING. 

And snatch' d o'er hill and dale, and wood and lawn, 

And verdant field, and darkening heath between, 

And villages embosom'd soft in trees, 

And spiry towns by surging columns mark'd 

Of household smoke, your eye excursive roams : 

Wide-stretching from the hall, in whose kind haunt 

The Hospitable Genius lingers still, 

To where the broken landscape, by degrees, 

Ascending, roughens into rigid hills ; 

O'er which the Cambrian mountains, like far clouds 

That skirt the blue horizon, dusky rise. 

Flush'd by the spirit of the genial year, 
JNow from the virgin's cheek a fresher bloom 
Shoots, less and less, the live carnation round ; 
Her lips blush deeper sweets ; she breathes of youth ; 
The shining moisture swells into her eyes, 
In brighter flow ; her wishing bosom heaves> 
With palpitations wild ; kind tumults seize 
Her veins, and all her yielding soul is love. 
From the keen gaze her lover turns away, 
Full of the dear ecstatic power, and sick 
With sighing languishment. Ah then, ye fair 1 
Be greatly cautious of your sliding hearts : 
Dare not th' infectious sigh ; the pleading look, 
Down-cast, and low, in meek submission drest, 
But full of guile. Let not the fervent tongue, 
Prompt to deceive, with adulation smooth, 
Gain on your purpos'd will. Nor in the bower, 
Where woodbines flaunt, and roses shed a couch, 



SPRING. 49 

While Evening draws her crimson curtains round, 
Trust your soft minutes with betraying Man. 

And let th' aspiring youth beware of love, 
Of the smooth glance beware ; for 'tis too late, 
When on his heart the torrent-softness pours ; 
Then wisdom prostrate lies, and fading fame 
Dissolves in air away ; while the fond soul, 
Wrapt in gay visions of unreal bliss, 
Still paints th' illusive form ; the kindling grace ; 
Th' enticing smile ; the modest-seeming eye, 
Beneath whose beauteous beams, belying heaven, 
Lurk searchless cunning, cruelty, and death : 
.And still false- warbling in his cheated ear, 
Her siren-voice, enchanting, draws him on 
To guileful shores, and meads of fatal joy. 

Ev'n present, in the very lap of love 
Inglorious laid ; while music flows around, 
Perfumes, and oils, and wine, and wanton hours j 
Amid the roses fierce Repentance rears 
Her snaky crest : a quick-returning pang 
Shoots thro' the conscious heart ; where honour still. 
And great design, against the oppressive load 
Of luxury, by fits, impatient heave. 

But absent, what fantastic woes, arous'd, 
Rage in each thought, by restless musing fed, 
Chill the warm cheek, and blast the bloom of life •? 
JVeglected fortune flies ; and sliding swift, 
Prone into ruin, fall his scorn'd affairs. 
'Tis naught but gloom around : the darken'd sun 
5 



SO SPRING* 

Loses bis light. The rosy bosom'd Spring 
To weeping Fancy pines ; and yon bright arch. 
Contracted, bends into a dusky vault. 
All Nature fades extinct ; and she alone 
Heard, felt, and seen, possesses every thought. 
Fills every sense, and pants in every vein. 
Books are but formal dulness, tedious friends ; 
And sad amid the social band he sits, 
Lonely, and unattentive. From his tongue 
Th' unfinish'd period falls : while, borne away 
On swelling thought, his wafted spirit flies 
To the vain bosom of his distant fair ; 
And leaves the semblance of a lover, nx'd 
In melancholy site, with head declin'd, 
And love-dejected eyes. Sudden he starts, 
Shook from his tender trance, and restless runs 
To glimmering shades, and sympathetic glooms; 
Where the dun umbrage o'er the falling stream. 
Romantic, hangs; there through the pensive dusk 
Strays, in heart-thrilling meditation lost, 
Indulging all to love : or on the bank 
Thrown, amid drooping lilies, swells the breeze 
With sighs unceasing, and the brook with tears. 
Thus in soft anguish he consumes the day, 
Nor quits his deep retirement, till the Moon 
Peeps through the chambers of the fleecy east,. 
Enlightened by degrees, and in her train 
Leads on the gentle Hours ; then forth he w r alks, 
Beneath the trembling languish of her beam, 



SPRING. Si 

With soften'd soul, and wooes the bird of eve 

To mingle woes with his : or, while the world 

And all the sons of Care lie hush'd in sleep, 

Associates with the midnight shadows drear ; 

And, sighing to the lonely taper, pours 

His idly tortur'd heart into the page, 

Meant for the moving messenger of love ; 

Where rapture burns on rapture, every line 

With rising frenzy fir'd. But if on bed 

Delirious flung, sleep from his pillow flies, 

All night he tosses, nor the balmy power 

In any posture finds ; till the gray Morn 

Lifts her pale lustre on the paler wretch, 

Exanimate by love : and then perhaps 

Exhausted Nature sinks awhile to rest, 

Still interrupted by distracted dreams, 

That o'er the sick imagination rise, 

And in black colours paint the mimic scene. 

Oft with th' enchantress of his soul he talks ; 

Sometimes in crowds distress'd ; or if retir'd 

To secret winding flower-enwoven bowers, 

Far from the dull impertinence of Man, 

Just as he, credulous, his endless cares 

Begins to lose in blind oblivious love, 

Snatch'd from her yielded hand, he knows not how, 

Through forests huge, and long untravel'd heaths 

With desolation brown, he wanders waste, 

In night and tempest wrapt : or shrinks aghast, 

Back, from the bending precipice ; or wades 



52 SPRING. 

The turbid stream below, and strives to reach 
The further shore ; where succourless and sad, 
She with extended arms his aid implores ; 
But strives in vain ; borne by th' outrageous flood 
To distance down, he rides the ridgy wave, 
Or whelm'd beneath the boiling eddy sinks. 

These are the charming agonies of love, 
Whose misery delights. But through the heart 
Should jealousy its venom once diffuse, 
"Tis then delightful miseiy no more, 
But agony unmix'd, incessant gall, 
Corroding every thought, and blasting all 
Love's paradise. Ye fairy prospects, then, 
Te beds of roses, and ye bowers of joy, 
Farewell ! ye gleamings of departed peace, 
Shine out your last ! the yellow-tinging plague 
Internal vision taints, and in a night 
Of livid gloom imagination wraps. 
Ah then ! instead of love-enliven'd cheeks, 
Of sunny features, and of ardent eyes 
With flowing rapture bright, dark looks succeed, 
Suffus'd and glaring with untender fire ,; 
A clouded aspect, and a burning cheek, 
Where the whole poison'd soul, malignant, sits 
And frightens love away. Ten thousand fears 
Invented wild, ten thousand frantic views 
Of horrid rivals, hanging on the charms 
For which, he melts in fondness, eat him up 
With fervent anguish, and consuming rage. 



SPRING, 53 

In vain reproaches lend their idle aid, 

Deceitful pride, and resolution frail, 

Giving false peace a moment. Fancy pours, 

Afresh, her beauties on his busy thought, 

Her first endearments twining round the soul, 

With all the witchcraft of ensnaring love. 

Straight the fierce storm involves his mind anew, 

Flames through the nerves, and boils along the veins ; 

While anxious doubt distracts the tortur'd heart : 

For ev'n the sad assurance of his fears 

Were ease to what he feels. Thus the warm y outh 

Whom love deludes into his thorny wilds, 

Through flowery-tempting paths, or leads a life 

Of fever'd rapture, or of cruel care ; 

His brightest aims extinguish'd all, and ail 

His lively moments running down to waste. 

But happy they ! the happiest of their kind I 
Whom gentler stars unite, and in one fate 
Their hearts, their fortunes, and their beings blend, 
'Tis not the coarser tie of human laws, 
Unnatural oft and foreign to the mind, 
That binds their peace, but harmony itself, 
Attuning all their passions into love ; 
Where friendship full exerts her softest power, 
Perfect esteem enlivened by desire 
Ineffable, and sympathy of soul ; 
Thought meeting thought, and will preventing wilj, 
With boundless confidence : for naught but love 
Can answer love, and render bliss secure. 
5* 



54 SPUING. 

Let him, ungenerous, who, alone intent 
To bless himself, from sordid parents buys 
The loathing virgin, in eternal care, 
Well-merited, consume his nights and days : 
Let barbarous nations, whose inhuman love 
Is wild desire, fierce as the suns they feel ; 
Let eastern tyrants from the light of heaven 
Seclude their bosom-slaves, meanly possess'd 
Of a mere lifeless, violated form : 
While those whom love cements in holy faith, 
And equal transport, free as Nature live, 
Disdaining fear. What is the world to them, 
Its pomp, its pleasure, and its nonsense all ! 
Who in each other clasp whatever fair 
High fancy forms, and lavish hearts can wish ; 
Something than beauty dearer, should they look 
Or on the mind, or mind-illumin'd face ; 
Truth, goodness, honour, harmony, and love, 
The richest bounty of indulgent Heaven. 
Meantime a smiling offspring rises round, 
And mingles both their graces. By degrees, 
The human blossom blows ; and every day, 
Soft as it rolls along, shows some new charm, 
The father's lustre, and the mothers bloom. 
Then infant reason grows apace, and calls 
For the kind hand of an assiduous care. 
Delightful task ! to rear the tender thought, 
To teach the young idea how to shoot, 
To pour the fresh instruction o'er the mind, 



SPRING. 55 

To breathe th' enlivening spirit, and to fix 
The generous purpose in the glowing breast. 
Oh, speak the joy ! ye, whom the sudden tear 
Surprises often, while you look around, 
And nothing strikes your eye but sights of bliss, 
All various Nature pressing on the heart : 
An elegant sufficiency, content, 
Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books, 
Ease and alternate labour, useful life, 
Progressive virtue, and approving Heaven ! 
These are the matchless joys of virtuous love ; 
And thus their moments fly. The Seasons thus, 
As ceaseless round a jarring world they roll, 
Still find them happy ; and consenting Spring 
Bteds her own rosy garland on their heads : 
TH evening comes at last, serene and mild ; 
W.en after the long vernal day of life, 
Enmour'd more, as more remembrance swells 
Wifc many a proof of recollected love, 
Togther down they sink in social sleep ; 
Togther freed, their gentle spirits fly 
To genes where love and bliss immortal reign. 




- she with the sylvan pen 



Of rural lovers this confession carv'd, 

Which soon her Damon kiss'd with weeping joy. 



Daniel Fanshaw, Printer, 



SUMMER. 



Xhe subject proposed. Invocation. Address to Mr. Dodington- 
An introductory reflection on the motion of the heavenly 
bodies; whence the succession of the seasons. As the face of 
Nature in this season is almost uniform, the progress of the 
poem is a description of a summer's day. The dawn. Sun- 
rising. Hymn to the sun. Forenoon, Summer insects de. 
scribed. Hay-making. Sheep-shearing. Noon-day. A wood- 
land retreat. Group of herds and flocks. A solemn grove : 
how it affects a contemplative mind. A cataract, and rude 
scene. View of Summer in the torrid zone. Storm of thunder 
and lightning. A tale. The storm over, a serene afternoon* 
Bathing. Hour of walking. Transition to the prospect of a 
rich well cultivated country- ; which introduces a panegyric 
on Great Britain. Sun-set. Evening. Night. Summer me- 
teors. A comet. The whole concluding with the praise of 
philosophy. 



SUMMER, 



From brightening fields of ether fair disclos'd, 
Child of the Sun, refulgent Summer comes, 
In pride of youth, and felt through Nature's depfh; 
He comes attended by the sultry Hours, 
And ever-fanning breezes, on his way ; 
While, from his ardent look, the turning Spring 
Averts her blushful face ; and earth, and skies, 
All-smiling, to his hot dominion leaves, 

Hence, let me haste into the mid- wood shade, 
Where scarce a sunbeam wanders through the gloom \ 
And on the dark-green grass, beside the brink 
Of haunted stream, that by the roots of oak 
Rolls o'er the rocky channel, lie at large, 
And sing the glories of the circling year. 

Come, Inspiration ! from thy hermit-seat, 
By mortal seldom found : may Fancy dare, 
From thy fix'd serious eye, and raptur'd glance 
Shot on surrounding heaven, to steal one look 
Creative of the Poet, every power 
Exalting to an ecstacy of soul. 

And thou, my youthful Muse's early friend, 
In whom the human graces all unite : 
Pure light of mind, and tenderness of heart: 



60 SUMMER. 

Genius, and wisdom ; the gay social sense. 
By decency chastis'd; goodness and wit, 
In seldom-meeting harmony combin'd ; 
Unblemish'd honour, and an active zeal 
For Britain's glory, Liberty, and Man : 
O Dodington ! attend my rural song, 
Stoop to my theme, inspirit every line, 
And teach me to deserve thy just applause. 

With what an awful world-revolving power 
Were first the unwieldy planets launch'd along 
Th' illimitable void ! thus to remain, 
Amid the flux of many thousand years, 
That oft has swept the toiling race of men, 
And all their labour'd monuments, away, 
Firm, unremitting, matchless, in their course ; 
To the kind-temper'd change of night and day^ 
And of the seasons ever stealing round, 
Minutely faithful : such th' All-perfect Hand ! 
That pois'd, impels, and rules the steady whole. 

When now no more th' alternate Twins are fir'd* 
And Cancer reddens with the solar blaze, 
Short is the doubtful empire of the night ; 
And soon, observant of approaching day, 
The meek'd-ey'd Morn appears, mother of dews,, 
At first faint-gleaming in the dappled east : 
Till far o'er ether spreads the widening glow ; 
And, from before the lustre of her face, 
White break the clouds away. With quicken 'd step. 
Brown IN'ight retires : young Day pours in apace, 



SUMMER. 61 

And opens all the lawny prospect wide. 
The dripping rock, the mountain's misty top 
Swell on the sight, and brighten with the dawn. 
Blue, through the dusk, the smoking currents shine; 
And from the bladed field the fearful hare 
Limps, awkward : while along the forest-glade 
The wild deer trip, and often, turning, gaze 
At early passenger. Music awakes 
The native voice of undissembled joy ; 
And thick around the woodland hymns arise. 
Rous'd by the cock, the soon-clad shepherd leaves 
His mossy cottage, where with Peace he dwells ; 
And from the crowded fold, in order, drives 
His flock, to taste the verdure of the morn. 

Falsely luxurious ! will not Man awake; 
And, springing from the bed of sloth, enjoy 1 
The cool, the fragrant, and the silent hour, 
To meditation due and sacred song ? 
For is there aught in sleep can charm the wise ? 
To lie in dead oblivion, losing half 
The fleeting moments of too short a life ; 
Total extinction of the enlighten'd soul ! 
Or else to feverish vanity alive, 
Wilder'd, and tossing through distemper'd dreams? 
Who would in such a gloomy state remain 
Longer than nature craves ; when every Muse 
And every blooming pleasure wait without, 
To bless the wildly-devious morning walk ? 

But yonder comes the powerful King of Day, 
6 



62 SUMMER. 

Rejoicing in the east. The lessening cloud, 

The kindling azure, and the mountain's brow 

Illum'd with fluid gold, his near approach 

Betoken glad. Lo ! now, apparent all, 

Aslant the dew-bright earth, and colour'd air, 

He looks in boundless majesty abroad ; 

And sheds the shining day, that burnish'd plays 

On rocks, and hills, andtow'rs, and wand'ring streams, 

High gleaming from afar. Prime cheerer, Light ! 

Of all material beings first, and best ! 

Efflux divine ! Nature's resplendent robe ! 

Without whose vesting beauty all were wrapt 

In unessential gloom ; and thou, O Sun ! 

Soul of surrounding worlds ! in whom best seen 

Shines out thy Maker ! may I sing of thee ? 

'Tis by thy secret, strong, attractive force, 
As with a chain indissoluble bound, 
Thy system rolls entire : from the far bourne 
Of utmost Saturn, wheeling wide his round 
Of thirty years ; to Mercury, whose disk 
Can scarce be caught by philosophic eye, 
Lost in the near effulgence of thy blaze. 

Informer of the planetary train ! 
Without whose quick'ning glance their cumbrous orbs 
Were brute unlovely mass, inert and dead, 
And not, as now, the green abodes of life ! 
How many forms of being wait on thee ' 
Inhaling spirit ; from th' unfetter'd mind, 
By thee sublim'd, down to the daily race, 
The mixing myriads of thy setting beam. 



SUMMER. 63 

The vegetable world is also thine, 
Parent of Seasons ! who the pomp precede 
That wa?ts thy throne, as through thy vast domain, 
Annual, along the bright ecliptic road, 
In world-rejoicing state, it moves sublime. 
Meantime th' expecting nations, circled gay 
With all the various tribes of foodful earth, 
Implore thy bounty, or send grateful up 
A common hymn : while, round thy beaming car, 
High-seen, the Seasons lead, in sprightly dance 
Harmonious knit, the rosy-finger'd Hours, 
The Zephyrs floating loose, the timely Rains, 
Of bloom ethereal the light-footed Dews, 
And softened into joy the surly Storms. 
These, in successive turn, with lavish hand, 
Shower every beauty, every fragrance shower, 
Herbs, flowers, and fruits ; and, kindling at thy touch, 
From land to land is flush'd the vernal year. 

Nor to the surface of enliven'd earth, 
Graceful with hills and dales, and leafy woods, 
Her liberal tresses, is thy force confin'd : 
But, to the bowel'tj cavern darting deep, 
The mineral kinds confess thy mighty power. 
Effulgent, hence the veiny marble shines ; 
Hence Labour draws his tools ; hence burnish'd War 
Gleams on the day ; the nobler works of Peace 
Hence bless mankind, and gen'rous Commerce binds 
The round of nations in a golden chain. 

Th' unfruitful rock itself, impregn'd by thee* 



64 SUMMER. 

In dark retirement forms the lucid stone. 

The lively diamond drinks thy purest rays, 

Collected light, compact; that, polish'd bright, 

And all its native lustre let abroad, 

Dares, as it sparkles on the fair one's breast, 

With vain ambition emulate her eyes. 

At thee the ruby lights its deepening glow, 

And with a waving radiance inward flames. 

From thee the sapphire, solid ether, takes 

Its hue cerulean ; and, of evening tinct, 

The purple-streaming amethyst is thine. 

With thy own smile the yellow topaz burns. 

Nor deeper verdure dyes the robe of Spring, 

When first she gives it to the southern gale, 

Than the green emerald shows. But, all combined. 

Thick through the whitening opal play thy beams; 

Or, flying several from its surface, form 

A trembling variance of revolving hues, 

As the sight varies in the gazer's hand. 

The very dead creation, from thy touch, 
Assumes a mimic life. By thee refin'd, 
In brighter mazes the relucent stream 
Plays o'er the mead. The precipice abrupt, 
Projecting horror on the blacken'd flood, 
Softens at thy return. The desert joys, 
Wildly, through all his melancholy bounds. 
Rude ruins glitter ; and the briny deep, 
Seen from some pointed promontory's top x 
Far to the blue horizon's utmost verge, 



SUMMER. 65 

Restless, reflects a floating gleam. But this, 
And all the much-transported Muse can sing, 
Are to thy beauty, dignity, and use, 
Unequal far ; great delegated source 
Of light, and life, and grace, and joy below ! 

How shall I then attempt to sing of Him ! 
Who, Light Himself, in uncreated light 
Invested deep, dwells awfully retir'd 
From mortal eye, or angel's purer ken ; 
Whose single smile has, from the first of time, 
Fill'd, overflowing, all those lamps of heaven 
That beam for ever through the boundless sky : 
But, should he hide his face, th' astonish'd sun, 
And all the extinguish'd stars, would loosening reel 
Wide from their spheres, and Chaos come again. 

And yet was every faltering tongue of Man, 
Almighty Father ! silent in thy praise ; 
Thy Works themselves would raise a general voice, 
Ev'n in the depth of solitary woods 
By human foot untrod ; proclaim thy power, 
And to the quire celestial Thee resound, 
Th' eternal cause, support, and end of all ! 

To me be Nature's volume broad-display'd ; 
And to peruse its all-instructing page, 
Or, haply catching inspiration thence, 
Some easy passage, raptur'd, to translate, 
My sole delight ; as through the falling glooms 
Pensive I stray, or with the rising dawn 
On fancy's eagle-wing excursive soar. 
6* 



66 SUMMER. 

Now, flaming up the heavens, the potent sun 
Mel+s into limpid air the high-rais'd clouds, 
And morning fogs, that hover'd round the hills 
In party-colour'd bands ; till wide unveil'd 
The face of Nature shines, from where earth seems, 
Far-stretch'd around, to meet the bending sphere. 

Half in a blush of clustering roses lost, 
Dew-dropping Coolness to the shade retires ; 
There, on the verdant turf, or flowery bed, 
By gelid founts and careless rills to muse ', 
While tyrant Heat, dispreading through the sky, 
With rapid sway, his burning influence darts 
On man, and beast, and herb, and tepid stream. 

Who can unpitying- see the flowery race, 
Shed by the morn, their new-flushed bloom resign, 
Before the parching beam ? so fade the fair, 
When fevers revel through their azure veins. 
But one the lofty follower of the sun, 
Sad when he sets, shuts up her yellow leaves, 
Drooping all night ; and, when he warm returns, 
Points her enamour'd bosom to his ray. 

Home, from his morning task, the swain retreats ; 
His flock before him stepping to the fold: 
While the fall-udder'd mother lows around 
The cheerful cottage, then expecting food, 
The food of innocence and health ! the daw, 
The rook, and magpie, to the gray-grown oaks 
That the calm village in their verdant arms, 
Sheltering, embrace, direct their lazy flight; 



SUMMER. 67 

Where on the mingling boughs they sit embower'd, 

All the hot noon, till cooler hours arise. 

Faint, underneath, the household fowls convene ; 

And, in a corner of the buzzing shade, 

The house-dog, with the vacant greyhound, lies, 

Out-stretch'd, and sleepy. In his slumbers one 

Attacks the nightly thief, and one exults 

O'er hill and dale ; till, waken 'd by the w T asp, 

They starting snap. Nor shall the Muse disdain 

To let the little noisy summer-race 

Live in her lay, and flutter through her song: 

Not mean though simple \ to the sun ally'd, 

From him they draw their animating fire. 

Wak'd by his warmer ray, the reptile young 
Come wing'd abroad ; by the light air upborne, 
Lighter, and full of soul. From every chink, 
And secret corner, where they slept away 
The wintery storms ; or rising from their tombs, 
To higher life 5 by myriads, forth at once, 
Swarming they pour ; of all the vary'd hues 
Their beauty-beaming parent can disclose. 
Ten thousand forms, ten thousand different tribes, 
People the blaze. To sunny waters some 
By fatal instinct fly ; where on the pool 
They, sportive, wheel : or, sailing down the stream, 
Are snatch'd immediate by the quick-eyed trout, 
Or darting salmon. Through the green-wood glade 
Some love to stray ; there lodg'd, amus'd, and fed, 
In the fresh leaf. Luxurious, others make 



68 SUMMER. 

The meads their choice, and visit every flower, 
And every latent herb : for the sweet task, 
To propagate their kinds, and where to wrap, 
In what soft beds, their young yet undisclos'd, 
Employs their tender care. Some to the house, 
The fold, and dairy, hungry, bend their flight ; 
Sip round the pail, or taste the curdling cheese : 
Oft, inadvertent, from the milky stream 
They meet their fate ; or, weltering in the bowl, 
With powerless wings around them wrapt, expire. 

But chief to heedless flies the window proves 
A constant death ; where, gloomily retir'd, 
The villain spider lives, cunning, and fierce, 
Mixture abhor'd ! amid a mangled heap 
Of carcasses, in eager watch he sits, 
O'erlooking all his waving snares around. 
Near the dire cell the dreadless wanderer oft 
Passes, as oft the ruffian shows his front ; 
The prey at last ensnar'd, he dreadful darts, 
With rapid glide, along the leaning line ; 
And, fixing in the wretch his cruel fangs, 
Strikes backward grimly pleas'd; the fluttering wing 
And shriller sound, declare extreme distress, 
And ask the helping hospitable hand. 

Resounds the living surface of the ground : 
Nor undelightful is the ceaseless hum, 
To him who muses through the woods at noon ; 
Or drowsy shepherd, as he lies reclin'd,. 
With half-shut eyes, beneath the floating shade 



SUMMER. 69 

Of willows gray, close-crowding o'er the brook. 

Gradual, from these what numerous kinds descend, 
Evading ev'n the microscopic eye ? 
Full nature swarms with life ; one wondrous mass 
Of animals, or atoms organized, 
Waiting the vital breath, when parent Heaven 
Shall bid his spirit blow. The hoary fen, 
In putrid streams, emits the living cloud 
Of pestilence. Through subterranean cells, 
Where searching sunbeams scarce can find a way, 
Earth animated heaves. The flowery leaf 
Wants not its soft inhabitants. Secure, 
Within its winding citadel, the stone 
Holds multitudes. But chief the forest boughs, 
That dance unnumber'd to the playful breeze r 
The downy orchard, and the melting pulp 
Of mellow fruit, the nameless nations feed 
Of evanescent insects. Where the pool 
Stands mantled o'er with green, invisible, 
Amid the floating verdure millions stray. 
Each liquid too, whether it pierces, soothes, 
Inflames, refreshes, or exalts the taste, 
With various forms abounds. Nor is the stream 
Of purest crystal, nor the lucid air, 
Though one transparent vacancy it seems, 
Void of their unseen people. These, conceal'd 
By the kind art of forming Heaven, escape 
The grosser eye of man : for, if the worlds 
In worlds enclos'd should on his senses burst, 



70 SUMMER. 

From cates ambrosial, and the nectar'd bowl, 
He would abhorrent turn ; and in dead night, 
When silence sleeps o'er all, be stunn'd with noise. 

Let no presuming impious railer tax 
Creative Wisdom, as if aught was form'd 
In vain, or not for admirable ends. 
Shall little haughty Ignorance pronounce 
His works unwise, of which the smallest part 
Exceeds the narrow vision of her mind ? 
As if upon a full-proportion'd dome, 
On swelling columns heav'd, the pride of art ! 
A critic-fly, whose feeble ray scarce spreads 
An inch around, with blind presumption bold, 
Should dare to tax the structure of the whole* 
And lives the Man, whose universal eye 
Has swept at once th' unbounded scheme of things; 
Mark'd their dependance so, and firm accord, 
As with unfaltering accent to conclude 
That this availeth naught ? Has any seen 
The mighty chain of beings. lessening down 
From Infinite Perfection to the brink 
Of dreary nothing, desolate abyss t 
From which astonish'd thought, recoiling, turns? 
Till then alone let zealous praise ascend, 
And hymns of holy wonder, to that Power, 
Whose wisdom shines as lovely on our minds, 
As on our smiling eyes his servant sun. 

Thick in yon stream of light, a thousand ways, 
Upward, and downward, thwarting, and convolv'd, 



SUMMER. 71 

The quivering nations sport; till, tempest-wing'd, 
Fierce Winter sweeps them from the face of day. 
Ev'n so luxurious men, unheeding, pass 
An idle summer life in fortunes shine, 
A season's glitter! thus they flutter on 
From toy to toy, from vanity to vice ; 
Till, blown away by death, oblivion comes 
Behind, and strikes them from the book of life, 

Now swarms the village o'er the jovial mead : 
The rustic youth, brOwn with meridian toil, 
Healthful and strong; full as the summer-rose 
Blown by prevailing suns, the ruddy maid, 
Half naked, swelling on the sight, and all 
Her kindled graces burning o'er her cheek. 
Ev'n stooping age is here ; and infant-hands 
Trail the long rake, or, with the fragrant load 
O'ercharg'd, amid the kind oppression roll. 
Wide flies the tedded grain ; all in a row 
Advancing broad, or wheeling round the field, 
They spread the breathing harvest to the sun, 
That throws refreshful round a rural smell: 
Or, as they rake the green-appearing ground, 
And drive the dusky wave along the mead, 
The russet hay-cock rises thick behind, 
In order gay. While heard from dale to dale, 
Waking the breeze, resounds the blended voice 
Of happy labour, love, and social glee. 

Or rushing thence., in one diffusive band, 
They drive the troubled flocks, by many a dog 



72 SUMMER. 

Compell'd, to where the mazy-running brook 
Forms a deep pool ; this bank abrupt and high, 
And that fair-spreading in a pebbled shore. 
Urg'd to the giddy brink, much is the toil, 
The clamour much, of men, and boys, and dogs, 
Ere the soft fearful people to the flood 
Commit their woolly sides. And oft the swain, 
On some impatient seizing, hurls them in : 
Embolden'd then, nor hesitating more, 
Fast, fast, they plunge amid the flashing wave, 
And panting labour to the furthest shore. 
Repeated this, till deep the well-wash'd fleece 
Has drunk the flood, and from his lively haunt 
The trout is banish'd by the sordid stream ; 
Heavy, and dripping, to the breezy brow 
Slow move the harmless race : where, as they spread 
Their swelling treasures to the sunny ray, 
Inly disturb'd, and wondering what this wild 
Outrageous tumult means, their loud complaints 
The country fill ; and, toss'd from rock to rock, 
Incessant bleatings run around the hills. 
At last, of snowy white, the gather'd flocks 
Are in the wattled pen innumerous press'd, 
Head above head : and rang'd in lusty rows 
The shepherds sit, and whet the sounding shears. 
The housewife waits to roll her fleecy stores, 
With all her gay-drest maids attending round. 
One, chief, in gracious dignity enthron'd, 
Shines o'er the rest, the pastoral queen and rays 



SUMMER. 73 

Her smiles, sweet-beaming, on her shepherd-king •, 
While the glad circle round them yield their souls 
To festive mirth, and wit that knows no gall. 
Meantime, their joyous task goes on apace : 
Some mingling stir the melted tar, and some, 
Deep on the new-shorn vagrant's heaving side, 
To stamp the master's cipher ready stand ; 
Others th' unwilling wether drag along ; 
And, glorying in his might, the sturdy boy 
Holds by the twisted horns th' indignant ram. 
Behold where bound, and of its robe bereft, 
By needy Man, that all-depending lord, 
How meek, how patient, the mild creature lies! 
What softness in its melancholy face, 
What dumb complaining innocence appears * 
Fear not, ye gentle tribes, 'tis not the knife 
Of horrid slaughter that is o'er you wav'd ; 
No, 'tis the tender swain's well-guided shears, 
Who having now, to pay his annual care, 
Borrow'd your fleece, to you a cumbrous load, 
Will send you bounding to your hills again. 
A simple scene ! yet hence Britannia sees 
Her solid grandeur rise : hence she commands 
Th' exalted stores of every brighter clime, 
The treasures of the Sun without his rage : 
Hence, fervent all, with culture, toil, and arts, 
Wide glows her land : her dreadful thunder hence 
Rides o'er the waves sublime, and now, ev'n now, 
Impending hangs o'er Gallia's humbled coast ; 
Hence rules the circling deep, and awes the, world. 
7 



74 SUMMER. 

'Tis raging noon ; and, vertical, the sun 
Darts on the head direct his forceful rays. 
O'er heaven and earth, far as the ranging eye 
Can sweep, a dazzling deluge reigns ; and all 
From pole to pole is undistinguish'd blaze. 
In vain the sight, dejected, to the ground 
Stoops for relief ; thence hot-ascending steams 
And keen reflection pain. Deep to the root 
Of vegetation parch'd, the cleaving fields 
And slippery lawn an arid hue disclose, 
Blast Fancy's bloom, and wither ev'n the soul. 
Echo no more returns the cheerful sound 
Of sharpening scythe ; the mower sinking heaps 
O'er him the humid hay, with flowers perfum'd ; 
And scarce a chirping grasshopper is heard 
Through the dumb mead. Distressful Nature pants. 
The very streams look languid from afar : 
Or, through th' unshelter'd glade, impatient, seem 
To hurl into the covert of the grove. 

All-conquering Heat, oh intermit thy wrath ! 
And on my throbbing temples potent thus 
Beam not so fierce ! incessant still you flow, 
And still another fervent flood succeeds, 
Pour'd on the head profuse. In vain I sigh, 
And restless turn, and look around for night ; 
Night is far off; and hotter hours approach. 
Thrice happy he ! who on the sunless side 
Of a romantic mountain, forest-crown'd, 
Beneath the whole collected shade reclines : 



SUMMER. 75 

Or in the gelid caverns, woodbine-wrought, 
And fresh bedew'd with ever-spouting streams, 
Sits coolly calm ; while all the world without, 
Unsatisfied, and sick, tosses in noon. 
Emblem instructive of the virtuous man, 
Who keeps his temper'd mind serene, and pure, 
And every passion aptly harmoniz'd, 
Amid a jarring world with vice inflam'd. 

Welcome, ye shades ! ye bowery thickets, hail ! 
Ye lofty pines! ye venerable oaks ! 
Ye ashes wild, resounding o'er the steep I 
Delicious is your shelter to the soul, 
As to the hunted hart the sallying spring, 
Or stream full-flowing, that his swelling sides 
Laves, as he floats along the herbag'd brink. 
Cool, thro' the nerves, your pleasing comfort glides; 
The heart beats glad ; the fresh-expanded eye 
And ear resume their watch ; the sinews knit ; 
And life shoots swift through all the lighten'd limbs. 

Around th' adjoining brook, that purls along 
The vocal grove, now fretting o'er a rock, 
Now scarcely moving through a reedy pool, 
Now starting to a sudden stream, and now 
Gently diffus'd into a limpid plain ; 
A various group the herds and flocks compose, 
Rural confusion ! on the grassy bank 
_Some ruminating lie ; while others stand 
Half in the flood, and often bending, sip 



76 SUMMER. 

The circling surface. In the middle droops 
The strong laborious ox, of honest front, 
Which incompos'd he shakes ; and from his sides 
The troublous insects lashes with his tail, 
Returning still. Amid his subjects safe, 
Slumbers the monarch-swain ; bis careless arm 
Thrown round his head, on downy moss sustain'd; 
Here laid his scrip, with wholesome viands filPd; 
There, listening every noise, his watchful dog. 
Light fly his slumbers, if perchance a flight 
Of angry gad-flies fasten on the herd ; 
That startling scatters from the shallow brook, 
In search of lavish stream. Tossing the foam, 
They scorn the keeper's voice, and scour the plain r 
Through all the bright severity of noon ; 
While, from their labouring breasts, a hollow moan- 
Proceeding, runs low-beilowing round the hills. 

Oft in this season too the horse, provok'd, 
While his big sinews full of spirits swell, 
Trembling with vigour, in the heat of blood, 
Springs the high fence ; and, o'er the field effus'd, 
Darts on the gloomy flood, with steadfast eye, 
And heart estrang'd to fear: his nervous chest, 
Luxuriant, and erect, the seat of strength ! 
Bears down th' opposing stream : quenchless his thirst ; 
He takes the river at redoubled draughts ; 
And with wide nostrils, snorting, skims the wave. 

Still let me pierce into the midnight depth 
Of yonder grove, of wildest largest growth ; 



SUMMER. 77 

That, forming high in air a woodland quire, 

Nods o'er the mount beneath. At every step, 

Solemn, and slow, the shadows blacker fall, 

And all is awful listening gloom around. 

These are the haunts of Meditation, these 

The scenes where ancient bards th' inspiring breath, 

Ecstatic, felt ; and, from this world retir'd, 

Convers'd with angels, and immortal forms, 

On gracious errands bent : to save the fall 

Of virtue struggling on the brink of vice ; 

In waking whispers, and repeated dreams, 

To hint pure thought, and warn the favour' d soul 

For future trials fated to prepare ; 

To prompt the poet, who devoted gives 

His muse to better themes ; to sooth the pangs 

Of dying worth, and from the patriot's breasts 

(Backward to mingle in detested war, 

But foremost when engag'd) to turn the death; 

And numberless such offices of love, 

Daily, and nightly, zealous to perform. 

Shook sudden from the bosom of the sky, 
A thousand shapes or glide athwart the dusk, 
Or stalk majestic on. Deep-rous'd, I feel 
A sacred terror, a severe delight. 
Creep through my mortal frame ; and thus, methinks, 
A voice, than human more, th' abstracted ear 
Of fancy strikes : — " Be not of us afraid, 
Poor kindred man ! thy fellow-creatures, we 
7* 



78 SUMMER. 

From the same Parent Power our beings drew, 

The same our Lord, and laws, and great pursuit 

Once some of us, like thee, through stormy life,, 

Toil'd, tempest-beaten, ere we could attain 

This holy calm, this harmony of mind, 

Where purity and peace im mingle charms. 

Then fear not us ; but with responsive song, 

Amid these dim recesses, undisturb'd 

By noisy folly and discordant vice, 

Of Nature sing with us, and Nature's God. 

Here frequent, at the visionary hour, 

When musing midnight reigns, or silent noon, 

Angelic harps are in full concert heard, 

And voices chaunting from the wood-crown'd hn% 

The deepening dale, or inmost sylvan glade : 

A privilege bestow'd by us, alone, 

On Contemplation, or the hallowed ear 

Of poet, swelling to seraphic strain." 

And art thou, Stanley,* of that sacred band ? 
Alas, for us too soon ! though rais'd above 
The reach of human pain, above the flight 
Of human joy ; yet, with a mingled ray 
Of sadly pleas'd remembrance, must thou feel 
A mother's love, a mother's tender woe : 
Who seeks thee still, in many a former scene ; 
Seeks thy fair form, thy lovely-beaming eyes, 
Thy pleasing converse, by gay lively sense 

* A young lady, who died at the age of eighteen, in the year 
1738, upon whom Thomson wrote an epitaph. 



SUMMER. 79 

Inspir'd : where moral wisdom mildly shone, 
Without the toil of art ; and virtue glow'd, 
In all her smiles, without forbidden pride. 
But, thou best of parents ! wipe thy tears ; 
Or rather to Parental Nature pay 
The tears of grateful joy, who for awhile 
Lent thee this younger self, this opening bloom 
Of thy enlightened mind and gentle worth. 
Believe the Muse : the wintry blast of death 
Kills not the buds of virtue ; no, they spread, 
Beneath the heavenly beam of brighter suns, 
Through endless ages, into higher powers. 
Thus up the mount, in airy vision wrapt, 
I stray, regardless whither ; till the sound 
Of a near fall of water every sense [back, 

Wakes from the charm of thought: swift-shrinking 
I check my steps, and view the broken scene. 

Smooth to the shelving brink a copious flood 
Rolls fair, and placid ; where collected all, 
In one impetuous torrent, down the steep 
It thundering shoots, and shakes the country round. 
At first, an azure sheet, it rushes broad ; 
Then whitening by degrees, as prone it falls, 
And from the loud-resounding rocks below 
Dash'd in a cloud of foam, it sends aloft 
A hoary mist, and forms a ceaseless shower. 
Nor can the tortur'd wave here find repose : 
But, raging still amid the shaggy rocks, 



80 SUMMER. 

Now flashes o'er the scatter'd fragments, now 
Aslant the hollow channel rapid darts ; 
And falling fast from gradual slope to slope, 
With wild infracted course, and lessen' d roar, 
It gains a safer bed, and steals, at last, 
Along the mazes of the quiet vale. 

Invited from the cliff, to whose dark brow 
He clings, the steep-ascending eagle soars, 
With upward pinions through the flood of day ; 
And, giving full his bosom to the blaze, 
Gains on the sun • while all the tuneful race, 
Smit by afflictive noon, disorder'd droop, 
Deep in the thicket ; or, from bower to bower 
Responsive, force an interrupted strain. 
The stock-dove only through the forest cooes, 
Mournfully hoarse ; oft ceasing from his plaint, 
Short interval of weary woe ! again 
The sad idea of his murder'd mate, 
Struck from his side by savage fowler's guile, 
Across his fancy comes ; and then resounds 
A louder song of sorrow through the grove. 

Beside the dewy border let me sit, 
All in the freshness of the humid air : 
There in that hollow'd rock, grotesque and wild, 
An ample chair moss-lin'd, and over head 
By flowering umbrage shaded ; where the bee 
Strays diligent, and with th' extracted balm 
Of fragrant woodbine loads his little thigh. 

Now, while I taste the sweetness of the shade, 



SUMMER. 81 

While Nature lies around deep-lull'd in noon, 
Now come, bold Fancy, spread a daring flight, 
And view the wonders of the torrid zone : 
Climes unrelenting ! with whose rage compar'd, 
Yon blaze is feeble, and yon skies are cool. 
See, how at once the bright-effulgent sun, 
Rising direct, swift chases from the sky 
The short-liv'd twilight ; and with ardent blaze 
Looks gaily fierce through all the dazzling air : 
He mounts his throne ; but kind before him sends, 
Issuing from out the portals of the morn, 
The general breeze ,* to mitigate his fire, 
And breathe refreshment on a fainting world. 
Great are the scenes, with dreadful beauty crown'd 
And barbarous wealth, that see. each circling year, 
Returning suns and double seasonst pass : 
Rocks rich in gems, and mountains big with mines 
That on the high equator ridgy rise, 
Whence many a bursting stream auriferous plays : 
Majestic woods, of every vigorous green, 
Stage above stage, high waving o'er the hills ; 
Or to the far horizon wide diffus'd, 



* Which blows constantly between the tropics from the east, or 
the collateral points, the north-east and south east : caused by 
the pressure of the. rarefied air on that before it, according to the 
diurnal motion of the sun from east to west. 

t In all climates between the tropics, the sun, as he passes and 
repasses in his annual motion, is twice a year vertical,which pro- 
duces this effect. 



82 SUMMER. 

A boundless deep immensity of shade. 

Here lofty trees, to ancient song unknown, 

The noble sons of potent heat and floods 

Prone-rushing from the clouds, rear high to heaven 

Their thorny stems, and broad around them throw 

Meridian gloom. Here, in eternal prime, 

Unnumber'd fruits of keen delicious taste 

And vital spirit, drink amid the cliffs, 

And burning sands that bank the shrubby vales, 

Redoubled day, yet in their rugged coats 

A friendly juice to cool its rage contain. 

Bear me, Pomona ! to thy citron groves ; 
To where the lemon and the piercing lime, 
With the deep orange, glowing through the green, 
Their lighter glories blend. Lay me reclin'd 
Beneath the spreading tamarind that shakes, 
Fann'd by the breeze, its fever-cooling fruit. 
Deep in the night the massy locust sheds, 
Quench my hot limbs ) or lead me through the maze, 
Embowering endless, of the Indian fig ; 
Or thrown at gayer ease, on some fair brow, 
Let me behold, by breezy murmurs cool'd, 
Broad o'er my head the verdant cedar wave, 
And high palmetos lift their graceful shade. 
Or stretch'd amid these orchards of the sun, 
Give me to drain the cocoa's milky bowl, 
And from the palm to draw its freshening wine ! 
More bounteous far than all the frantic juice 
Which Bacchus pours. Nor, on its slender twigs 



SUMMER. 83 

Low-bending, be the full pomegranate scorn'd ; 
Nor, creeping through the woods, the gelid race 
Of berries. Oft in humble station dwells 
Unboastful worth, above fastidious pomp. 
Witness, thou best Anana, thou the pride 
Of vegetable life, beyond whate'er 
The poets imag'd in the golden age : 
Quick let me strip thee of thy tufty coat, 
Spread thy ambrosial stores, and feast with Jove ! 

From these the prospect varies. Plains immense 
Lie stretch'd below, interminable meads, 
And vast savannahs, where the wandering eye, 
Unfixt, is in a verdant ocean lost. 
Another Flora there, of bolder hues, 
And richer sweets, beyond our garden's pride, 
Plays o'er the fields, and showers with sudden hand 
Exuberant spring : for oft these valleys shift 
Their green-embroider'd robe to fiery brown, 
And swift to green again, as scorching suns, 
Or streaming dews and torrent rains, prevail. 

Along these lonely regions, where retir'd, 
From little scenes of art, great Nature dwells 
In awful solitude, and naught is seen 
But the wild herds that own no master's stall, 
Prodigious rivers roll their fattening seas : 
On whose luxuriant herbage, half-conceal'd, 
Like a fallen cedar, far diffus'd his train, 
Cas'd in green scales, the crocodile extends. 
The flood disparts : behold ! in plaited mail, 



84 SUMMER. 

Behemoth* rears his head. Glanc'd from his side, 
The darted steel in idle shivers flies : 
He fearless walks the plain, or seeks the hills ; 
Where, as he crops his varied fare, the herds, 
In widening circle round, forget their food, 
And at the harmless stranger wondering gaze. 

Peaceful, beneath primeval trees, that cast 
Their ample shade o'er Niger's yellow stream, 
And where the Ganges rolls his sacred wave ; 
Or mid the central depth of blackening woods, 
High-rais'd in solemn theatre around, 
Leans the huge elephant : wisest of brutes ! 
O truly wise ! with gentle might endow'd, 
Though powerful, not destructive ! here he sees 
Revolving ages sweep the changeful earth, 
And empires rise and fall ; regardless he 
Of what the never-resting race of men 
Project : thrice happy ! could he 'scape their guile, 
Who mine, from cruel avarice, his steps ; 
Or with his towery grandeur swell their state, 
The pride of kings ! or else his strength pervert, 
And bid him rage amid the mortal fray, 
Astonish'd at the madness of mankind. 

W^ide o'er the winding umbrage of the floods, 
Like vivid blossoms glowing from afar, 
Thick swarm the brighter birds. For Nature's hand, 
That with a sportive vanity has deck'd 

* The Hippopotamus, or river-horse. 



SUMMER. 85 

The plumy nations, there her gayest hues 
Profusely pours * But, if she bids them shine, 
Ai l ray'd in all the beauteous beams of day, 
¥et frugal still, she humbles them in song. 
JNbr envy we the gaudy robes they lent 
Proud Montezuma's realm, whose legions cast 
A boundless radiance waving on the sun, 
While Philomel is ours ; while in our shades, 
Through the soft silence of the listening night, 
The sober suited songstress trills her lay. 

But come, my Muse, the desert-barrier burst, 
A wild expanse of lifeless sand and sky : 
And, swifter than the toiling caravan, 
Shoot o'er the vale of Sennar ; ardent climb 
The Nubian mountains, and the secret bounds 
Of jealous Abyssinia boldly pierce. 
Thou art no ruffian, w r ho beneath the mask 
Of social commerce com'st to rob their wealth ; 
No holy fury thou, blaspheming Heaven, 
With consecrated steel to stab their peace, 
And through the land, yet red from civil wounds, 
To spread the purple tyranny of Rome. 
Thou, like the harmless bee, may'st freely range, 
From mead to mead bright with exalted flowers, 
From jasmine grove to grove, may'st wander gay, 
Through palmy shades and aromatic woods, 

* In all the regions of the torrid zone, the birds, though 
more beautiful in their plumage, are observed to be less, melodi- 
ous than ours. 



86 ' SUMMER, 

That grace the plains, invest the peopled hills, 
And up the more than Alpine mountains wave. 
There on the breezy summit, spreading fair, 
For many a league ; or on stupendous rocks, 
That from the sun-redoubling valley lift, 
Cool to the middle air, their lawny tops ; 
Where palaces, and fanes, and villas rise ; 
And gardens smile around, and cultur'd fields ; 
And fountains gush ; and careless herds and flocks 
Securely stray ; a world within itself, 
Disdaining all assault : there let me draw 
Ethereal soul, there drink reviving gales, 
Profusely breathing from the spicy groves, 
And vales of fragrance ; there at distance bear 
The roaring floods, and cataracts, that sweep 
From disembowel'd earth the virgin gold ; 
And o'er the varied landscape, restless, rove, 
Fervent with life of every fairer kind : 
A land of wonders ! which the sun still eyes 
With ray direct, as of the lovely realm 
Enamour'd, and delighting there to dwell. 

How chang'd the scene ! in blazing height of noon, 
The sun, oppress'd, is plung'd in thickest gloom. 
Still horror reigns, a dreary twilight round, 
Of struggling night and day malignant mix'd. 
For to the hot equator crowding fast, 
Where, highly rarefied, the yielding air 
Admits their stream, incessant vapours roll, 
Amazing clouds on clouds continual heap'd ; 



SUMMER. 87 

Or whirl'd tempestuous by the gusty wind, 

Or silent borne along, heavy, and slow, 

With the big stores of streaming oceans charg'd* 

Meantime, amid these upper seas, condens'd 

Around the cold aerial mountain's brow, 

And by conflicting winds together dash'd, 

The Thunder holds his black tremendous throne ; 

From cloud to cloud the rending lightnings rage; 

Till, in the furious elemental war 

Dissolv'd, the whole precipitated mass 

Unbroken floods and solid torrents pours. 

The treasures these, hid from the bounded search 
Of ancient knowledge ; whence, with annual pomp, 
Rich king of floods ! o'erflows the swelling Nile. 
From his two springs, in Gojam's sunny realm, 
Pure-welling out, he through the lucid lake 
Of fair Dambea rolls his infant stream. 
There, by the naiads nurs'd, he sports away 
His playful youth, amid the fragrant isles, 
That with unfading verdure smile around. 
Ambitious, thence the manly river breaks ; 
And gathering many a flood, and copious fed 
With all the mellow treasures of the sky, 
Winds in progressive majesty along: 
Through splendid kingdoms now devolves his maze, 
Now wanders wild o'er solitary tracts 
Of life-deserted sand ; till, glad to quit 
The joyless desert, down the Nubian rocks 
From thundering steep to steep, he pours his urn^ 
And Egypt joys beneath the spreading wave^ 



88 



SUMMER. 



His brother Niger too, and all the floods 
In which the full-form'd maids of Afric lave 
Their jetty limbs ; and all that from the tract 
Of woody mountains stretch'd through gorgeous Ind 
Fall on Cormandel's coast, or Malabar ; 
From Menam's* orient stream, that nightly shines 
With insect-lamps, to where Aurora sheds 
On Indus' smiling banks the rosy shower : 
All, at this bounteous season, ope their urns, 
And pour untoiling harvest o'er the land. 

Nor less thy world, Columbus, drinks, refresh'd, 
The lavish moisture of the melting year. 
Wide o'er his isles, the branching Oronoque 
Rolls a brown deluge : and the native drives 
To dwell aloft on life- sufficing trees, 
At once his dome, his robe, his food, and arms. 
Swell'd by a thousand streams, impetuous hurl'd 
From all the roaring Andes, huge descends 
The mighty Orellana.t Scarce the Muse 
Dares stretch her wing o'er this enormous mass 
Of rushing water ; scarce she dares attempt 
The sea-like Plata ; to whose dread expanse, 
Continuous depth, and wondrous length of course^ 
Our floods are rills. With unabated force, 
In silent dignity they sweep along, 

# The river that runs through Siam ; on whose banks a vast 
multitude of those insects, called Fire-flies, make a beautiful 
appearance in the night. 

tThe river of the Amazons. 



SUMMER. 89 

And traverse realms unknown, and blooming wilds, 
And fruitful deserts, worlds of solitude, 
Where the sun smiles and seasons teem in vain, 
Unseen, and unenjoy'd. Forsaking these, 
O'er peopled plains they fair- diffusive flow, 
And many a nation feed, and circle safe, 
In their soft bosom, many a happy isle ; 
The seat of blameless Pan, yet undisturb'd 
By Christian crimes and Europe's cruel sons. 
Thus pouring on they proudly seek the deep, 
Whose vanquish'd tide, recoiling from the shock, 
Yields to the liquid weight of half the globe ; 
And ocean trembles for his green domain. 

But what avails this wondrous waste of wealth ? 
This gay profusion of luxurious bliss ? 
This pomp of Nature ? what their balmy meads, 
Their powerful herbs, and Ceres void of pain ? 
By vagrant birds dispers'd, and wafting winds, 
What their unplanted fruits ? w T hat the cool draughts, 
Th' ambrosial food, rich gums, and spicy health, 
Their forests yield ? their toiling insects what, 
Their silky pride, and vegetable robes ? 
Ah ! what avail their fatal treasures, hid 
Deep in the bowels of the pitying earth, 
Golconda's gems, and sad Potosi's mines ; 
Where dwelt the gentlest children of the sun ? 
What all that Afric's golden rivers roll, 
Her odorous woods, and shining ivory stores ? 
Ill-fated race ! the softening arts of Peace, 
' 8* 



90 SUMMER. 

Whate'er the humanizing Muses teach ; 
The godlike wisdom of the temper'd breast ; 
Progressive truth, the patient force of thought ; 
Investigation calm, whose silent powers 
Command the world ; the light that leads to heaven ; 
Kind equal rule, the government of laws, 
And all-protecting Freedom, which alone 
Sustains the name and dignity of man : 
These are not theirs. The parent-sun himself 
Seems o'er this world of slaves to tyrannize ; 
And, with oppressive ray, the roseate bloom 
Of beauty blasting, gives the gloomy hue, 
And feature gross : or worse, to ruthless deeds, 
Mad jealousy, blind rage, and fell revenge, 
Their fervid spirit fires. Love dwells not there, 
The soft regards, the tenderness of life, 
The heart-shed tear, th' ineffable delight 
Of sweet humanity : these court the beam 
Of milder climes ; in selfish fierce desire, 
And the wild fury of voluptuous sense, 
There lost. The very brute-creation there 
This rage partakes, and burns with horrid fire. 
Lo ! the green serpent, from his dark abode, 
Which even Imagination fears to tread, 
At noon forth-issuing, gathers up his train 
In orbs immense, then, darting out anew, 
Seeks the refreshing fount ; by which diffused, 
He throws his folds : and while, with threat'ning 
And deathful jaws erect, the inoaster curls [tongue, 



SUMMER. 91 

His flaming crest, all other thirst appall'd, 

Or shivering flies, or check'd at distance stands, 

Nor dares approach. But still more direful he, 

The small close-lurking minister of fate, 

Whose high-concocted venom through the veins 

A rapid lightning darts, arresting SAvift 

The vital current. Form'd to humble man, 

This child of vengeful Nature ! there, sublim'd 

To fearless lust of blood, the savage race 

Roam, licens'd by the shading hour of guilt, 

And foul misdeed, when the pure day has shut 

His sacred eye. The tiger darting fierce 

Impetuous on the prey his glance has doom'd : 

The lively-shining leopard, speckled o'er 

With many a spot, the beauty of the waste ; 

And, scorning all the taming arts of man, 

The keen hyena, fellest of the fell. 

These, rushing from .th' inhospitable woods 

Of Mauritania, or the tufted isles 

That verdant rise amid the Lybian wild, 

Innumerous glare around their shaggy king, 

Majestic, stalking o'er the printed sand ; 

And, with imperious and repeated roars, 

Demand their fated food. The fearful flocks 

Crowd near the guardian swain ; the nobler herds, 

Where round their lordly bull, in rural ease, 

They ruminating lie, with horror hear 

The coming rage. Th' awaken'cl village starts ; 

And to her fluttering breast the mother strains 



92 SUMMER. 

Her thoughtless infant. From the pirate's den, 
Or stern Morocco's tyrant fang escap'd, 
The wretch half- wishes for his bonds again : 
While, uproar all, the wilderness resounds, 
From Atlas eastward to the frighted Nile. 

Unhappy he ! who from the first of joys, 
Society, cut off, is left alone 
Amid this world of death. Day after day, 
Sad on the jutting eminence he sits, 
And views the main that ever toils below; 
Still fondly forming in the furthest verge, 
Where the round ether mixes with the wave, 
Ships, dim-discover'd, dropping from the clouds > 
At evening, to the setting sun he turns 
A mournful eye, and down his dying heart 
Sinks helpless ; while the wonted roar is up, 
And hiss continual through the tedious night. 
Yet here, ev'n here, into these black abodes 
Of monsters, unappall'd, from stooping Rome, 
And guilty Caesar, Liberty retir'd, 
Her Cato following through Numidian wilds : 
Disdainful of Campania's gentle plains, 
And all the green delights Ausonia pours ; 
When for them she must bend the servile knee, 
And fawning take the splendid robber's boon. 

Nor stop the terrors of these regions here. 
Commission'd demons oft, angels of wrath, 
Let loose the raging elements. Breath'd hot 
From all the boundless furnace of the sky, 



SUMMER. 9S 

And the wide glittering waste of burning sand, 

A suffocating wind the pilgrim smites 

With instant death. Patient of thirst and toil, 

Son of the desert ! even the camel feels, 

Shot through his withered heart, the fiery blast. 

Or from the black-red ether, bursting broad, 

v. 
Sallies the sudden whirlwind. Straight the sands*, 

Commov'd around, in gathering eddies play : 

Nearer and nearer still they darkening come ; 

Till, with the general all-involving storm 

Swept up, the whole continuous wilds arise ; 

And by their noon-day fount dejected thrown, 

Or sunk at night in sad disastrous sleep, 

Beneath descending hills, the caravan 

Is buried deep. In Cairo's crowded streets 

Th' impatient merchant, wondering, waits in vain, 

And Mecca saddens at the long delay. 

But chief at sea, whose every flexile wave 

Obeys the blast, the aerial tumult swells. 

In the dread ocean, undulating wide, 

Beneath the radiant line that girts the globe, 

The circling Typhon * whirl'd from point to point, 

Exhausting all the rage of all the sky, 

And dire Ecnephia* reign. Amid the heavens, 

Falsely serene, deep in a cloudy speckt 

* Typhon and Ecnephia, names of particular storms or 
hurricanes, known only between the tropics. 

f Called by sailors the Ox eye, being in appearance at first no 
bigger. 



94 SUMMER. 

Compress'd, the mighty tempest brooding dwells : 

Of no regard, save to the skilful eye, 

Fiery and foul, the small prognostic hangs 

Aloft, or on the promontory's brow 

Musters its force. A faint deceitful calm, 

A fluttering gale, the demon sends before, 

To tempt the spreading sail. Then down at once, 

Precipitant, descends a mingled mass 

Of roaring winds, and flame, and rushing floods. 

In wild amazement lix'd the sailor stands. 

Art is too slow : by rapid fate oppress'd, 

His broad-wing'd vessel drinks the whelming tide, 

Hid in the bosom of the black abyss. 

With such mad seas the daring Gama* fought, 

For many a day, and many a dreadful night, 

Incessant, labouring round the stormy Cape \ 

By bold ambition led, and bolder thirst 

Of gold. For then from ancient gloom emerg'd 

The rising world of trade : the Genius, then, 

Of navigation, that, in hopeless sloth, 

Had slumber'd on the vast Atlantic deep, 

For idle ages, starting, heard at last 

The Lusitanian Prince ;t who Heav'n-inspir'd, 

To love of useful glory rous'd mankind, 

* Vasco de Gama, the first who sailed round Africa, by the 
Cape of Good Hope, to the East Indies. 

f Don Henry, third son to John the first, King of Portugal. 
His strong genius to the discovery of new countries was the 
chief source of all the modern improvements in navigation. 



SUMMER. 95 

And in unbounded commerce mix'd the world. 

Increasing still the terrors of these storms, 
His jaws horrific arm'd with threefold fate, 
Here dwells the direful shark. Lurk'd by the scent 
Of steaming crowds, of rank disease, and death, 
Behold \ he rushing cuts the briny flood, 
Swift as the gale can bear the ship along ; 
And, from the partners of that cruel trade, 
Which spoils unhappy Guinea of her sons, 
Demands his share of prey ; demands themselves. 
The stormy fates descend : one death involves 
Tyrants and slaves ; when straight,their mangl'd limbs 
Crashing at once, he dyes the purple seas 
With gore, and riots in the vengeful meal. 

When o'er this world, by equinoctial rains 
Flooded immense, looks out the joyless sun, 
And draws the copious steam : from swampy fens, 
Where putrefaction into life ferments, 
And breathes destructive myriads : or from woods,. 
Impenetrable shades, recesses foul, 
In vapours rank and blue corruption wrapt, 
Whose gloomy horrors yet no desperate foot 
Has ever dar'd to pierce ; then, wasteful, forth 
Walks the dire Power of pestilent disease. 
A thousand hideous fiends her course attend, 
Sick Nature blasting, and to heartless woe, 
And feeble desolation, casting down 
The towering hopes and all the pride of Man. 
Such as, of late, at Carthagena quench'd 



96 SUMMER. 

The British fire. You, gallant Vernon, saw 
The miserable scene ; you, pitying, saw- 
To infant-weakness sunk the warrior's arm ; 
Saw the deep-racking pang, the ghastly form, 
The lip pale-quivering, and the beamless eye 
No more with ardour bright : you heard the groans 
Of agonizing ships, from shore to shore ; 
Heard, nightly plung'd amid the sullen waves, 
The frequent corse ; while on each other fix'd, 
In sad presage, the blank assistants seem'd, 
Silent, to ask, whom Fate would next demand. 
What need I mention those inclement skies, 
Where, frequent o'er the sickening city, Plague, 
The fiercest child of Nemesis divine, 
Descends ? From Ethiopia's poison'd woods, 
From stifled Cairo's filth, and fetid fields 
With locust-armies putrifying heap'd, 
This great destroyer sprung. Her awful rage 
The brutes escape : Man is her destin'd prey, 
Intemperate Man ! and, o'er his guilty domes, 
She draws a close incumbent cloud of death j 
Uninterrupted by the living winds, 
Forbid to blow a wholesome breeze ; and stain'd 
With many a mixture by the sun, sufFus'd, 
Of angry aspect. Princely wisdom, then, 
Dejects his watchful eye ; and from the hand 
Of feeble justice, ineffectual, drop 
The sword and balance : route the voice of joy, 
And hush'd the clamour of the busy world. 



SUMMER. 97 

Empty the streets, with uncouth verdure clad ; 

Into the worst of deserts sudden turn'd 

The cheerful haunt of men ; unless escap'd [reigns, 

From the doom'd house, where matchless horror 

Shut up by barbarous fear, the smitten wretch, 

With frenzy wild, breaks loose ; and, loud to Heaven 

Screaming, the dreadful policy arraigns, 

Inhuman, and unwise. The sullen door, 

Yet uninfected, on its cautious hinge 

Fearing to turn, abhors society : 

Dependants, friends, relations, Love himself. 

Savag'd by woe, forget the tender tie, 

The sweet engagement of the feeling heart. 

But vain their selfish care : the circling sky, 

The wide enlivening air is full of fate ; 

And, struck by turns, in solitary pangs 

They fall, unblest, untended, and unmourn'd. 

Thus o'er the prostrate city black Despair 

Extends her raven wing : while, to complete 

The scene of desolation, stretch'd around, 

The grim guards stand, denying all retreat, 

And give the flying wretch a better death. 

Much yet remains unsung: the rage intense 
Of brazen-vaulted skies, of iron fields, 
Where drought and famine starve the blasted year.: 
Fir'd by the torch of noon to tenfold rage, 
Th' infuriate hill that shoots the pillar'd flame \ 
And, rous'd within the subterranean world, 
Th' expanding earthquake, that resistless shakes 
9 



98 SUMMER. 

Aspiring cities from their solid base, 
And buries mountains in the flaming gulf. 
But 'tis enough; return, my vagrant Muse; 
A nearer scene of horror calls thee home. 

Behold, slow-settling o'er the lurid grove 
Unusual darkness broods ; and growing gains 
The full possession of the sky, surcharg'd 
With wrathful vapour, from the secret beds, 
Where sleep the mineral generations, drawn. 
Thence nitre, sulphur, and the fiery spume 
Of fat bitumen, steaming on the day, 
With various-tinctur'd trains of latent flame, 
Pollute the sky, and in yon baleful cloud, 
A reddening gloom, a magazine of fate, 
Ferment ; till, by the touch ethereal rous'd, 
The dash of clouds, or irritating war 
Or fighting winds, while all is calm below, 
They furious spring. A boding silence reigns, 
Dread through the dun expanse ; save the dull sound 
That from the mountain, previous to the storm, 
Rolls o'er the muttering earth, disturbs the flood, 
And shakes the forest-leaf without a breath. 
Prone, to the lowest vale, the aerial tribes 
Descend : the tempest-loving raven scarce 
Dares wing the dubious dusk. In rueful gaze 
The cattle stand, and on the scowling heavens 
Cast a deploring eye ; by man forsook, 
Who to the crowded cottage hies him fast, 
Or seeks the shelter of the downward cave. 



SUMMER. 99 

'Tis listening fear, and dumb amazement all : 
When to the startled eye the sudden glance 
Appears far south, eruptive through the cloud ; 
And following slower, in explosion vast, 
The Thunder raises his tremendous voice. 
At first, heard solemn o'er the verge of heaven, 
The tempest growls ; but as it nearer comes, 
And rolls its awful burden on the wind, 
The lightnings flash a larger curve, and more 
The noise astounds : till over head a sheet 
Of livid flame discloses wide ; then shuts, 
And opens wider ; shuts and opens still 
Expansive, wrapping ether in a blaze. 
Follows the loosen'd aggravated roar, 
Enlarging, deepening, mingling ; peal on peal 
Crush'd horrible, convulsing heaven and earth. 

Down comes a deluge of sonorous hail, 
Or prone-descending rain. Wide-rent, the clouds 
Pour a whole flood ; and yet, its flame unquench'cf, 
Th' unconquerable lightning struggles through, 
Ragged and fierce, or in red whirling balls, 
And fires the mountains with redoubled rage. 
Black from the stroke, above, the smould'ring pine 
Stands a sad shatter'd trunk ; and, stretch'd below, 
A lifeless group the blasted cattle lie : 
Here the soft flocks, with that same harmless look 
They wore alive, and ruminating still 
In fancy's eye ; and there the frowning bull, 
And ox half-rais'd. Struck on the castled cliff, 



100 RUMMER. 

The venerable tower and spiry fame 
Resign their aged pride The gloomy woods 
Start at the flash, and from their deep recess, 
Wide-flaming out, their trembling inmates shake. 
Amid Carnarvon's mountains rages loud 
'The repercussive roar: with mighty crush, 
Into the flaming deep, from the rude rocks 
Of Penmanmaur heap'd hideous to the sky, 
Tumble the smitten cliffs ; and Snowden's peak. 
Dissolving, instant yields his wintry load. 
Far seen, the heights of heathy Cheviot blaze, 
And Thule bellows through her utmost isles. 

Guilt hears appaird, with deeply troubled thought. 
And yet not always on the guilty head 
Descends the fated flash. Young Celadon 
And his Amelia were a matchless pair ; 
With equal virtue form'd, and equal grace, 
The same, distinguish'd by their sex alone : 
Hers the mild lusture of the blooming morn, 
And his the radiance of the risen day. 

They lov'd : but such the guileless passion was, 
As in the dawn of time inform'd the heart 
Of innocence, and undissembling truth. 
'Twas friendship, heighten'd by the mutual wisb> 
Th' enchanting hope, and sympathetic glow, 
Beam'd from the mutual eye. Devoting all 
To love, each was to each a dearer self; 
Supremely happy in th' awaken'd power 
Of giving joy. Alone, amid the shades; 



SUMMER. 101 

Still in harmonious intercourse they Hv'd 
The rural day, and talk'd the flowing heart, 
Or sigh'd and look'd unutterable things. 

So pass'd their life, a clear united stream, 
By care unruffled ; till, in evil hour, 
The tempest caught them on the tender walk, 
Heedless how far and where its mazes stray 'd, 
While, with each other blest, creative love 
Still bade eternal Eden smile around. 
Presaging instant fate her bosom heav'd 
Unwonted sighs, and stealing oft a look 
Of the big gloom, on Celadon her eye 
Fell tearful, wetting her disorder'd cheek. 
In vain assuring love, and confidence 
In Heaven, repress'd her fear ; it grew, and shook 
Her frame near dissolution. He perceiv'd 
Th' unequal conflict ; and as angels look 
On dying saints, his eyes compassion shed, 
With love illumin'd high. " Fear not," he said, 
" Sweet innocence ! thou stranger to offence, 
And inward storm ! He, who yon skies involves 
In frowns of darkness, ever smiles on thee 
With kind regard. O'er thee the secret shaft 
That wastes at midnight, or th' undreaded hour 
Of noon, flies harmless : and that very voice, 
Which thunders terror through the guilty heart, 
With tongues of seraphs whispers peace to thine. 
'Tis safety to be near thee sure, and thus 
To clasp perfection !" From his void embrace, 
9* 



102 SUMMER. 

(Mysterious Heaven !) that moment, to the ground; 
A blacken 'd corse, was struck the beauteous maid. 
But who can paint the lover, as he stood, 
Pierc'd by severe amazement, hating life, 
Speechless, and fix'd in all the death of woe! 
So, faint resemblance ! on the marble tomb, 
The well-dissembled mourner stooping stands, 
For ever silent and for ever sad. 

As from the face of heaven the shatter'd clouds 
Tumultuous rove, th' interminable sky 
Sublimer swells, and o ; er the world expands 
A purer azure. Through the lighten'd air 
A higher lustre and a clearer calm, 
Diffusive, tremble; while, as if in sign 
Of danger past, a glittering robe of joy, 
Set off abundant by the yellow ray, 
Invests the fields ; and nature smiles reviv'd. 

'Tis beauty all, and grateful song around, 
Join'd to the low of kine, and numerous bleat 
Of fiocks thick-nibbling through the clover'd vale. 
And shall the hymn be mar'd by thankless Man, 
Most-favour'd ! who with voice articulate 
Should lead the chorus of this lower world ; 
Shall he, so soon forgetful of the Hand 
That husb'd the thunder, and serenes the sky, 
Extinguish'd feel that spark the tempest wak'd, 
That sense of powers exceeding far his own, 
Ere yet his feeble heart has lost its fears ? 

Cheer'd by the milder beam, the sprightly youth 






SUMMER. 103 

Speeds to the well-known pool, whose crystal depth 

A sandy bottom shows. Awhile he stands 

Gazing th' inverted landscape, half afraid 

To meditate the blue profound below ; 

Then plunges headlong down the circling flood. 

His ebon tresses and his rosy cheek 

Instant emerge ; and through th' obedient wave, 

At each short breathing by his lip repell'd, 

With arms and legs according well, he makes, 

As humour leads, an easy-winding path ; 

While, from his polish'd sides, a dewy light 

Effuses on the pleas'd spectators round. 

This is the purest exercise of health, 
The kind refresher of the summer-heats ; 
Nor when cold Winter keens the brightening flood, 
Would I weak-shivering linger on the brink. 
Thus life redoubles, and is oft preserv'd, 
By the bold swimmer, in the swift elapse 
Of accident disastrous. Hence the limbs 
Knit into force ; and the same Roman arm, 
That rose victorious o'er the conquer'd earth, 
First learn'd, while tender, to subdue the wave. 
Even from the body's purity, the mind 
Receives-a secret sympathetic aid. 

Close in the covert of a hazel copse, 
Where winded into pleasing solitudes 
Runs out the rambling dale, young Damon sat, 
Pensive, and-pierc'd with love's delightful pangs. 
There to the stream that down the distant rocks 



104 SUMMER. 

Hoarse-murmuring fell, and plaintive breeze that 

Among the bending willows, falsely he [play'd 

Of Musidora's cruelty eomplain'd. 

She felt his flame ; but deep within her breast 

In bashful coyness, or in maiden pride, 

The soft return conceal'd ; save when it stole 

In side-long glances from her downcast eye, 

Or from her swelling soul in stifled sighs. 

Touch'd by the scene, no stranger to his vows, 

He fram'd a melting lay, to try her heart ; 

And, if an infant passion struggled there, 

To call that passion forth. Thrice happy swain f 

A lucky chance, that oft decides the fate 

Of mighty monarchs, then decided thine. 

For lo ! conducted by the laughing Loves, 

This cool retreat his Musidora sought : 

Warm in her cheek the sultry season glow'd; 

And, rob'd in loose array, she came to bathe 

Her fervent limbs in the refreshing stream. 

What shall he do ? In sweet confusion lost, 

And dubious flutterings, he awhile remain'd: 

A pure ingenuous elegance of soul, 

A delicate refinement, known to few, 

Perplex'd his breast, and urg'd him to retire : 

But love forbade. Ye prudes in virtue, say, 

Say, ye severest, what would you have done ? 

Meantime, this fairer nymph than ever blest 

Arcadian stream, with timid eye around 

The banks surveying, stripp'd her beauteous limbs, 



SUMMER. 105 

To taste the lucid coolness of the flood. 

Ah then ! not Paris on the piny top 

Of Ida panted stronger, when aside 

The rival-goddesses the veil divine 

Cast unconfin'd, and gave him all their charms, 

Than, Damon, thou ; as from the snowy leg, 

And slender foot, th' inverted silk she drew ; 

As the soft touch dissolved the virgin zone ; 

And, through the parting robe, th' alternate breast, 

With youth wild-throbbing, on thy lawless gaze 

In full luxuriance rose. But, desperate youth, 

How durst thou risk the soul-distracting view ; 

As from her naked limbs, of glowing white, 

Harmonious swell 'd by Nature's finest hand, 

In folds loose-floating fell the fainter lawn ; 

And fair-expos'd she stood, shrunk from herself, 

With fancy blushing, at the doubtful breeze 

Alarm'd, and starting like the fearful fawn ? 

Then to the flood she rush'd ; the parted flood 

Its lovely guest with closing waves receiv'd ; 

A»d every beauty softening, every grace 

Flushing anew, a mellow lustre shed : 

As shines the lily through the crystal mild ; 

Or as the rose amid the morning dew, 

Fresh from Aurora's hand, more sweetly glows. 

While thus she wanton'd, now beneath the wave 

But ill-conceal'd ; and now with streaming locks, 

That half-embrac'd her in a humid veil, 

Rising again, the latent Damon drew 



106 SUMMER. 

Such mad'ning draughts of beauty to the soul r 

As for awhile o'erwbelm'd his raptur'd thought 

With luxury too-daring. Check'd, at last, 

By love's respectful modesty, he deem'd 

The theft profane, if aught profane to love 

Can e'er be deem'd ; and, struggling from the shade. 

With headlong hurry fled : but first these lines, 

Trac'd by his ready pencil, on the bank 

With trembling hand he threw : — " Bathe on, my fair, 

Yet unbeheld save by the sacred eye 

Of faithful love : I go to guard thy haunt, 

To keep from thy recess each vagrant foot, 

And each licentious eye." With wild surprise, 

As if to marble struck, devoid of sense, 

A stupid moment motionless she stood : 

So stands the statue* that enchants the world, 

So bending tries to veil the matchless boast, 

The mingled beauties of exulting Greece. 

Recovering, swift she flew to find those robes 

Which blissful Eden knew not ; and, array'd 

In careless haste, th' alarming paper snatch'd. 

But, when her Damon's well-known hand she saw, 

Her terrors vanish'd, and a softer train 

Of mixt emotions, hard to be describ'd, 

Her sudden bosom seiz'd : shame void of guilt, 

The charming blush of innocence, esteem, 

And admiration of her lover's flame, 

* The Venus of Medici. 



SUMMER. 107 

By modesty exalted : even a sense 

Of self-approving beauty stole across 

Her busy thought. At length, a tender calm 

Hush'd by degrees the tumult of her soul ; 

And on the spreading beech, that o'er the stream 

Incumbent hung, she with the sylvan pen 

Of rural lovers this confession carv'd, 

Which soon her Damon kiss'd with weeping joy : 

11 Dear youth ! sole judge of what these verses mean ? 

By fortune too much favour'd, but by love, 

Alas ! not favour'd less, be still as now 

Discreet : the time may come you need not fly." 

The sun has lost his rage : his downward orb 
Shoots nothing now but animating warmth, 
And vital lustre ; that, with various ray, 
Lights up the clouds, those beauteous robes of heaven, 
Incessant roll'd into romantic shapes, 
The dream of waking fancy ! broad below, 
Cover'd with ripening fruits, and swelling fast 
Into the perfect year, the pregnant earth 
And all her tribes rejoice. Now the soft hour 
Of walking comes : for him who lonely loves 
To seek the distant hills, and there converse 
With Nature ; there to harmonize his heart, 
And in pathetic song to breathe around 
The harmony to others. Social friends, 
Attun'd to happy unison of soul ; 
To whose exalting eye a fairer world, 
Of which the vulgar never had a glimpse, 



10S SUMMER. 

Displays its charms ; whose mind are richly fraught 

With philosophic stores, superior light ; 

And in whose breast, enthusiastic, burns 

Virtue, the sons of interest deem romance ; 

Now call'd abroad enjoy the falling day : 

Now to the verdant Portico of woods, 

To Nature's vast Lyceum, forth they walk ; 

By that kind School where no proud master reigns, 

The full free converse of the friendly heart, 

Improving and improv'd. Now from the world, 

Sacred to sweet retirement, lovers steal, 

And pour their souls in transport, which the Sire 

Of love, approving, hears, and calls it good. 

Which way, Amanda, shall we bend our course ? 

The choice perplexes. Wherefore should we choose ? 

All is the same with thee. Say, shall we wind 

Along the streams ? or walk the smiling mead ? 

Or court the forest glades ? or wander wild 

Among the waving harvests ? or ascend, 

While radiant Summer opens all its pride, 

Thy hill, delightful Shene ?* Here let us sweep 

The boundless landscape : now the raptur'd eye, 

Exulting swift, to huge Augusta send, 

Now to the t Sister-Hills that skirt the plain, 

To lofty Harrow now, and now to where 

Majestic Windsor lifts his princely brow. 

* The old name of Richmond, signifying in Saxon, Shining* 
or Splendour, 
t Highgate and Hampstead. 






StTMMEfe. 109 

In lovely contrast to this glorious view 

Calmly magnificent, then will we turn 

To where the silver Thames first rural grows. 

There let the feasted eye unwearied stray : 

Luxurious, there, rove through the pendant woods 

That nodding hang o'er Harrington's retreat; 

And, stooping thence to Ham's embowering walks, 

Beneath whose shades, in spotless peace retir'd, 

With Her the pleasing partner of his heart, 

The worthy Queensb'ry yet laments his Gay, 

And polish'd Cornbury woos the willing Muse, 

Slow let us trace the matchless Vale of Thames; 

Fair-winding up to where the Muses haunt 

In Twit'nam's bowers, and for their Pope implore 

The healing God ;* to royal Hampton's pile, 

To Clermont's terrass'd height, and Esher's groves, 

Where in the sweetest solitude, embrac'd 

By the soft windings of the silent mole, 

From courts and senates Pelham finds repose. 

Enchanting vale ! beyond whate'er the Muse 

Has of Achaia or Hesperia sung ! 

O vale of bliss ! O softly-swelling hills4 

On which the Power of Cultivation lies, 

And joys to see the wonders of his toil. 

Heavens ! what a goodly prospect spreads around, 
Of hills, and dales, and woods, and lawns, and spires, 
And glittering towns, and gilded streams, till all 

* In his last sickness. 
10 



110 SUMMER. 

The stretching landscape into smoke decays ! 
Happy Britannia ! where the Queen of Arts, 
Inspiring vigour, Liberty abroad 
Walks, unconfin'd, even to thy furthest cots, 
And scatters plenty with unsparing hand. 

Rich is thy soil, and merciful thy clime ; 
Thy streams unfailing in the summer's drought; 
Unmatched thy guardian-oaks ; thy valleys float 
With golden waves : and on thy mountains flocks 
Bleat numberless ! while, roving round their sides, 
Bellow the blackening herds in lusty droves. 
Beneath, thy meadows glow, and rise unquell'd 
Against the mower's scythe. On every hand 
Thy villas shine. Thy country teems with wealth ; 
And property assures it to the swain, 
Pleas'd, and unwearied, in his guarded toil. 

Full are thy cities with the sons of Art ; 
And trade and joy, in every busy street, 
Mingling are heard : ev'n Drudgeiy himself, 
As at the car he sweats, or dusty hews 
The palace stone, looks gay. Thy crowded ports, 
Where rising masts an endless prospect yield, 
With labour burn, and echo to the shouts 
Of hurried sailor, as he hearty waves 
His last adieu, and loosening every sheet, 
Resigns the spreading vessel to the wind. 
Bold, firm, and graceful, are thy generous youth, 
By hardship sinew'd, and by danger fir'd, 
Scattering the nations where they go ; and first 



SUMMER. Ill 

Or on the listed plain, or stormy seas. 
Mild are thy glories too, as o'er the plans 
Of thriving peace thy thoughtful sires preside ; 
In genius, and substantial learning, high ; 
For every virtue, every worth, renown'd ; 
Sincere, plain-hearted, hospitable, kind; 
Yet like the mustering thunder when provok'd, 
The dread of tyrants, and the soul resource 
Of those that under grim oppression groan. 

Thy sons of glory many 1 Alfred thine, 
In whom the splendour of heroic war, 
And more heroic peace, when govern'd well, 
Combine ; whose hallow'd name the Virtues saint, 
And his own Muses love ; the best of kings ! 
With him thy Edwards and thy Henrys shine, 
Names dear to fame ; the first who deep impress'd 
On haughty Gaul the terror of thy arms, 
That awes her genius still. In statesmen thou, 
And patriots, fertile. Thine a steady More, 
Who, with a generous though mistaken zeal, 
Withstood a brutal tyrant's useful rage, 
Like Cato firm, like Aristides just, 
Like rigid Cincinnatus nobly poor, 
A dauntless soul erect, who smil'd on death. 
Frugal and wise, a Walsingham is thine, 
A Drake, who made thee mistress of the deep, 
And bore thy name in thunder round the world. 
Then flam'd thy spirit high : but who can speak 
The numerous worthies of the Maiden Reign ? 



112 SUMMER. 

In Raleigh mark their every glory mix'd ; 

Raleigh, the scourge of Spain ! whose breast with all 

The sage, the patriot, and the hero burn'd r 

Nor sunk his vigour, when a coward-reign 

The warrior fetter'd, and at ^st resign'd, 

To glut the vengeance of a vanquish'd foe. 

Then, active still and unrestrain'd, his mind 

Explor'd the vast extent of ages past, 

And with his prison-hours enrich'd the world ; 

Yet found no times, in all the long research, 

So glorious, or so base, as those he prov'd, 

In which he conquer'd. and in which he bled. 

Nor can the Muse the gallant Sidney pass, 

The plume of war ! with early laurels crown'd r 

The lover's myrtle, and the poet's bay, 

A Hampden too is thine, illustrious land, 

Wise, strenuous, firm, of unsubmitting soul, 

Who stemm'd the torrent of a downward age 

To slavery prone, and bade thee rise again, 

In all thy native pomp of freedom bold. 

Bright, at his call, thy Age of Men eflfulg'd, 

Of Men on whom late time a kindling eye 

Shall turn, and tyrants tremble while they read. 

Bring every sweetest flower, and let me strew 

The grave w 7 here Russel lies ; whose temper'd blood 

With calmest cheerfulness for thee resign'd, 

Stain'd the sad annals of a giddy reign ; 

Aiming at lawless power, though meanly sunk 

In loose inglorious luxury. With him 



SUMMER. 113 

His friend, the British Cassius ,* fearless bled ; 

Of high determin'd spirit, roughly brave, 

By ancient learning to th' enlighten'd love 

Of ancient freedom warm'd. Fair thy renown 

In awful sages and in noble bards ; 

Soon as the light of dawning Science spread 

Her orient ray, and wak'd the Muses' song. 

Thine is a Bacon ; hapless in his choice, 

Unfit to stand the civil storm of state, 

And through the smooth barbarity of courts, 

With firm but pliant virtue, forward still 

To urge his course : him for the studious shade 

Kind Nature form r d, deep, comprehensive, clear r 

Exact, and elegant : in one rich soul, 

Plato, the Stagyrite, and Tully join'd. 

The great deliverer he ! who from the gloom 

Of cloister'd monks, and jargon-teaching schools, 

Led forth the true Philosophy, there long 

Held in the magic chain of words and forms, 

And definitions void : he led her forth, 

Daughter of Heaven ! that slow-ascending still, 

Investigating sure the chain of things, 

With radiant finger points to heaven again. 

The generous Ashley t thine, the friend of man , 

Who scann'd his nature with a brother's eye, 

His weakness prompt to shade, to raise his aim^ 

* Algeron Sidney. 

t Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury. 
10* 



114 SUMMER. 

To touch the finer movements of the mind, 

And with the moral beauty charm the heart. 

Why need I name thy Boyle, whose pious searcb 

Amid the dark recesses of his works, 

The great Creator sought ? And why thy Lockev 

Who made the whole internal world his own ? 

Let Newton, pure intelligence, whom God 

To mortals lent, to trace his boundless works 

From law T s sublimely simple, speak tby fame 

In all philosophy. For lofty sense, 

Creative fancy, and inspection keen 

Through the deep windings of the human heart, 

Is not wild Shakspeare thine and Nature's boast? 

Is not each great, each amiable Muse 

Of classic ages in thy Milton met ? 

A genius universal as his theme ; 

Astonishing as chaos, as the bloom 

Of blowing Eden fair, as heaven sublime ! 

Nor shall my verse that elder bard forget, 

The gentle Spenser, Fancy's pleasing son ; 

Who, like a copious river, pour'd his song 

O'er all the mazes of enchanted ground : 

Nor thee, his ancient master, laughing sage, 

Chaucer, whose native, manners-painting verse, 

Well-moraliz'd, shines through the gothic cloud 

Of time and language o'er thy genius thrown. 

May my song soften, as thy daughters I, 
Britannia, hail ! for beauty is their own, 
The feeling heart, simplicity of life. 






SUMMER. 115 

And elegance, and taste : the faultless form, 
Shap'd by the hand of harmony ; the cheek, 
Where the live crimson, through the native white 
Soft-shooting, o'er the face diffuses bloom, 
And every nameless grace ; the parted lip, 
Like the red rose-bud moist with morning-dew, 
Breathing delight; and, under flowing jet, 
Or sunny ringlets, or of circling brown, 
The neck slight-shaded, and the swelling breast: 
The look resistless, piercing to the soul, 
And by the soul inform'd. when drest in love 
She sits high-smiling in the conscious eye. 

Island of bliss ! amid the subject seas, 
That thunder round thy rocky coasts, set up, 
At once the wonder, terror, and delight, 
Of distant nations ; whose remotest shores 
Can soon be shaken by thy naval arm ; 
Not to be shook thyself, but all assaults 
Baffling, as thy hoar cliffs the loud sea-wave. 

O thou ! by whose Almighty nod the scale 
Of empire rises, or alternate falls, 
Send forth the saving Virtues round the land, 
In bright patrol : white Peace, and social Love ; 
The tender looking Charity, intent 
On gentle deeds, and shedding tears through smiles; 
Undaunted Truth, and Dignity of mind: 
Courage compos'd, and keen ; sound Temperance, 
Healthful in heart and look; clear Chastity, 
With blushes reddening as she moves along, 



116 SUMMER. 

Disorder'd at the deep regard she draws; 
Rough Industry; Activity untir'd, 
With copious life inform'd, and all awake: 
While in the radiant front, superior shines 
That first Paternal virtue, Public Zeal ; 
Who throws o'er all an equal wide survey, 
And, ever musing on the common weal, 
Still labours glorious with some great design. 

Low walks the sun, and broadens by degree, 
Just o'er the verge of day. The shifting clouds 
Assembled gay, a richly-gorgeous train 
In all their pomp attend his setting throne. 
Air, earth, and ocean smile immense. And now, 
As if his weary chariot sought the bowers 
Of Amphitrite, and her tending nymphs, 
(So Grecian fable sung) he dips his orb ; 
Now half-immers'd ; and now a golden curve 
Gives one bright glance, then total disappears. 

For ever running an enchanted round, 
Passes the day, deceitful, vain, and void ; 
As fleets the vision o'er the formful brain, 
This moment hurrying wild th' impassion'd soul, 
The next in nothing lost. 'Tis so to him, 
The dreamer of this earth, an idle blank : 
A sight of horror to the cruel wretch, 
Who all day long in sordid pleasure roll'd, 
Himself an useless load, has squander'd vile, 
Upon his scoundrel train, what might have cbeer'd 
A drooping family of modest worth, 



SUMMER. 117 

But to the generous still-improving mind, 
That gives the hopeless heart to sing for joy, 
Diffusing kind beneficence around, 
Boastless, as now descends the silent dew ; 
To him the long review of order'd life 
Is inward rapture, only to be felt. 

Confess'd from yonder slow-extinguish'd clouds, 
All ether softening, sober Evening takes 
Her wonted station in the middle air; 
A thousand shadows at her beck. First this 
She sends on earth ; then that of deeper dye 
Steals soft behind ; and then a deeper still, 
In circle following circle, gathers round, 
To close the face of things. A fresher gale 
Begins to wave the wood, and stir the stream, 
Sweeping with shadowy gust the fields of corn ; 
While the quail clamours for his running mate. 
Wide o'er the thirsty lawn, as swells the breeze, 
A whitening shower of vegetable down 
Amusive floats. The kind impartial care 
Of Nature naught disdains : thoughtful to feed 
Her lowest sons, and clothe the coming year, 
From field to field the feather'd seeds she wings. 

His folded flock secure, the shepherd home 
Hies, merry-hearted ; and by turns relieves 
The ruddy milk-maid of her brimming pail; 
The beauty whom perhaps his witless heart, 
Unknowing what the joy-mixt anguish means, 
Sincerely loves, by that best language shown 



118 SUMMER. 

Of cordial glances, and obliging deeds. 
Onward they pass, o'er many a panting height, 
And valley sunk, and unfrequented ; where 
At fall of eve the fairy people throng, 
In various game, and revelry, to pass 
The summer night, as village-stories tell. 
But far about they wander from the grave 
Of him, whom his ungentle fortune urg'd 
Against his own sad breast to lift the hand 
Of impious violence. The lonely tower 
Is also shunn'd ; whose mournful chambers hold,. 
So night-struck Fancy dreams, the yelling ghost. 

Among the crooked lanes, on every hedge, 
The glow-worm lights his gem , and through the dark. 
A moving radiance twinkles. Evening yields 
The world to Night ; not in her winter-robe 
Of massy stygian woof, but loose array'd 
In mantle dun. A faint erroneous ray, 
Glanc'd from th' imperfect surfaces of things, 
Flings half an image on the straining eye ; 
While wavering woods, and villages, and streams, 
And rocks, and mountain-tops, that long retain'd 
Th' ascending gleam, are all one swimming scene, 
Uncertain if beheld. Sudden to heaven 
Thence weary vision turns ; where, leading soft 
The silent hours of love, with purest ray 
Sweet Venus shines ; and from her genial rise, 
When day-light sickens till it springs afresh, 
Unrival'd reigns, the fairest lamp of Night. 



SUMMER. 119 

As thus th' effulgence tremulous I drink, 

With cherish'd gaze, the lambent lightnings shoot 

Across the sky ; or horizontal dart 

In wondrous shapes : by fearful murmuring crowds 

Portentous deem'd. Amid the radiant orbs, 

That more than deck, that animate the sky, 

The life-infusing suns of other worlds ; 

Lo ! from the dread immensity of space 

Returning, with accelerated course, 

The rushing comet to the sun discends ; 

And as he sinks below the shading earth, 

With awful train projected o'er the heavens, 

The guilty nations tremble. But, above 

Those superstitious horrors that enslave 

The fond sequacious herd, to mystic faith 

And blind amazement prone, th' enlighten'd few, 

Whose godlike minds Philosophy exalts, 

The glorious stranger hail. They feel a joy 

Divinely great ; they in their powers exult, [spurns 

That wondrous force of thought, which mounting 

This dusky spot, and measures all the sky ; 

While, from his far excursion through the wilds 

Of barren ether, faithful to his time, 

They see the blazing wonder rise anew, 

In seeming terror clad, but kindly bent 

To work the will of all-sustaining Love : 

From his huge vapoury train perhaps to shake 

Reviving moisture on the numerous orbs, 

Through which his long ellipsis winds j perhaps 



120 SUMMER. 

To lend new fuel to declining suns, 
To light up worlds, and feed th' eternal fire. 
With thee, serene Philosophy, with thee, 
And thy bright garland, let me crown my song I 
Effusive source of evidence, and truth ! 
A lustre shedding o'er th' ennobled mind, 
Stronger than summer-noon ; and pure as that, 
Whose mild vibrations sooth the parted soul, 
New to the dawning of celestial day. [thee, 

Hence through her nourish'd powers, enlarg'd by 
She springs aloft, with elevated pride, 
Above the tangling mass of low desires, 
That bind the fluttering crowd ; and, angel- wing'd, 
The heights of science and of virtue gains, 
Where all is calm and clear; with INature round, 
Or in the starry regions, or th' abyss, 
To Reason's and to Fancy's eye display'd : 
The First up-tracing, from the dreary void, 
The chain of causes and effects to Him, 
The world-producing Essence, who alone 
Possesses being ; while the Last receives 
The whole magnificence of heaven and earth, 
And every beauty, delicate or bold, 
Obvious or more remote, with livelier sense, 
Diffusive painted on the rapid mind, 
Tutor'd by thee, hence Poetry exalts 
Her voice to ages ; and informs the page 
With music, image, sentiment, and thought, 
Never to die ! the treasure of mankind ! 



SUMMER. 121 

Their highest honour, and their truest joy ! 
Without thee what were unenlighten'd Man ? 
A savage roaming through the woods and wilds,. 
In quest of prey ; and with th' unfashion'd fur 
Rough-clad ; devoid of every finer art, 
And elegance of life. Nor happiness 
Domestic, mix'd of tenderness and care, 
Nor moral excellence, nor social bliss, 
Nor guardian law were his ; nor various skill 
To turn the furrow, or to guide the tool 
Mechanic ; nor the heaven-conducted prow 
Of navigation bold, that fearless braves 
The burning line, or dares the wintry pole ; 
Mother severe of infinite delights ! 
Nothing, save rapine, indolence, and guile, 
And woes on woes, a still-revolving train ! 
Whose horrid circle had made human life 
Than non-existence worse : but, taught by thee,, 
Ours are the plans of policy and peace ; 
To live like brothers, and conjunctive all 
Embellish life. While thus laborious crowds 
Ply the tough oar, Philosophy directs 
The ruling helm ; or like the liberal breath 
Of potent heaven, invisible, the sail 
Swells out, and bears th' inferior world along. 

Nor to this evanescent speck of earth 
Poorly confin'd, the radiant tracts on high 
Are her exalted range ; intent to gaze 
Creation through ; and, from that full complex 
11 



122 SUMMER* 

Of never-ending wonders, to conceive 
Of the Sole Being right, who spoke the Word, 
And Nature mov'd complete. With inward view,, 
Thence on th' ideal kingdom swift she turns 
Her eye ; and instant, at her powerful glance, 
Th' obedient phantoms vanish or appear ; 
Compound, divide, and into order shift, 
Each to his rank, from plain perception up 
To the fair forms of Fancy's fleeting train : 
To reason then, deducing truth from truth; 
And notion quite abstract; where first begins 
The world of spirits, action all, and life 
Unfetter'd, and unmixt. But here the cloud 
(So wills eternal providence) sits deep. 
Enough for us to know that this dark slate, 
In wayward passions lost and vain pursuits, 
This Infancy of Being, cannot prove 
The final issue of the works of God, 
By boundless Love and perfect Wisdom form'd, 
And ever rising with the rising mind. 




By strong Necessity's supreme command, 
With smiling patience in her looks, she went 
To glean Palemon's fields. 



Daniel Fanshaw, Printer. 



AUTUMN. 



The subject proposed. Addressed to Mr. Onslow. A prospect or 
the fields ready for harvest. Reflections in praise of Industry 
raised by that view. Keaping. A tale relative to it. An harvest 
storm. Shooting and hunting, their barbarity. A ludicrous ac- 
count of fox-hunting A view of an orchard Wall-fruit. A 
vineyard- A description of fogs, frequent in the latter part of 
Autumn : whence a digression, inquiring into the rise of foun- 
tains and rivers. Birds of season considered, that now shift 
their habitation The prodigious number of them that cover 
the northern and western isles of Scotland- Hence a view of 
the country. A prospect of the discoloured, fading woods. Af- 
ter a gentle dusky day, moonlight. Autumnal meteors. Morn- 
ing : to which succeeds a calm, pure, sun-shiny day, such as 
usually shuts up the season. The harvest being gathered in, 
the country dissolved in joy . The whole concludes with a pane- 
gyric on a philosophical country life. 



AUTUMN, 



Crown'd with the sickle and the wheaten sheaf, 
While Autumn - , nodding o'er the yellow plain, 
Comes jovial on ; the Doric reed once more, 
Well-pleas'd, I tune. Whate'erthe wintry frost 
Nitrous prepar'd ; the various-blossom'd Spring 
Put in white promise forth ; and Summer-suns 
Concocted strong, rush boundless now to view, 
Full, perfect all, and swell my glorious theme. 

Onslow ! the Muse, ambitious of thy name, 
To grace, inspire, and dignify her song, 
Would from the public voice thy gentle ear 
Awhile engage. Thy noble cares she knows, 
The patriot virtues that distend thy thought, 
Spread on thy front, and in thy bosom glow ; 
While listening senates hang upon thy tongue, 
Devolving through the maze of eloquence 
A roll of periods, sweeter than her song. 
But she too pants for public virtue, she, 
Though weak of power, yet strong in ardent will, 
Whene'er her Country rushes on her heart, 
Assumes a bolder note, and fondly tries 
To mix the patriot's with the poet's flame. 

When the bright Virgin gives the beauteous days, 
IP 



126 AUTUMN. 

And Libra weighs in equal scales the year ; 

From heaven's high cope the fierce effulgence shook 

Of parting Summer, a serener blue, 

With golden light enliven'd, wide invests 

The happy world. Attemper'd suns arise, 

Sweet-beam'd, and shedding oft through lucid clouds 

A pleasing calm; while broad, and brown, below 

Extensive harvests hang the heavy head. 

Rich, silent, deep, they stand ; for not a gale 

Rolls its light billows o'er the bending plain : 

A calm of plenty ! till the ruffled air 

Falls from its poize, and gives the breeze to blow. 

Rent is the fleecy mantle of the sky ; 

The clouds fly different ; and the sudden sun 

By fits effulgent gilds th' illumin'd field, 

And black by fits the shadows sweep along. 

A gaily chequer'd heart-expanding view, 

Far as the circling eye can shoot around, 

Unbounded tossing in a flood of corn. 

These are thy blessings, Industry ! rough power 
Whom labour still attends, and sweat, and pain ; 
Yet the kind source of every gentle art, 
And all the soft civility of life : 
Raiser of humankind ! by Nature cast, 
Naked, and helpless, out amid the woods 
And wilds^ to rude inclement elements ; 
With various seeds of art deep in the mind 
Implanted, and profusely pour'd around 
Materials infinite but idle all. 






AUTUMN. 1'27 

Still unexerted, in th' unconscious breast, 
Slept the lethargic powers ; Corruption still, 
Voracious, swallovv'd what the liberal hand 
Of bounty scatter'd o'er the savage year : 
And still the sad barbarian, roving, mix'd 
With beasts of prey, or for his acorn-meal 
Fought the fierce tusky boar; a shivering wretch 
Aghast and comfortless, when the bleak north, 
With Winter charg'd, let the mixt tempest fly, 
Hail, rain, and snow, and bitter-breathing frost; 
Then to the shelter of the hut he fled; 
And the wild seasons, sordid, pin'd away. 
For home he had not; home is the resort 
Of love, of joy, of peace, and plenty, where, 
Supporting and supported, polish'd friends, 
And dear relations, mingle into bliss. 
But this the rugged savage never felt, 
Ev'n desolate in crowds ; and thus his days 
Roll'd heavy, dark, and unenjoy'd along : 
A waste of time ! till Industry approach'd, 
And rous'd him from his miserable sloth 
His faculties unfolded ; pointed out, 
Where lavish Nature the directing hand 
Of Art demanded ; show'd him how to raise 
His feeble force by the mechanic powers, 
To dig the mineral from the vaulted earth ; 
On what to turn the piercing rage of fire ; 
On what the torrent, and the gather'd blast ; 
Gave the tall ancient forest to his axe ; 



128 AUTUMN. 

Taught him to chip the wood, and hew the stone, 

Till by degrees the finished fabric rose; 

Tore from his limbs the blood-polluted fur, 

And wrapt them in the woolly vestment warm, 

Or bright in glossy silk, and flowing lawn ; 

With wholesome viands fill'd his table ; pour'd 

The generous glass around, inspir'd to wake 

The life-refining soul of decent wit : 

]Sor stopp'd at barren bare necessity ; 

But still advancing bolder, led him on 

To pomp, to pleasure, elegance, and grace ; 

And, breathing high ambi tion through his sou, 

Set science, wisdom, glory, in his view, 

And bade him be the Lord of all below. [bin'd. 

Then gathering men their natural powers com- 
And form'd a Public ; to the general good 
Submitting, aiming, and conducting all. 
For this the Patriot-Council met, the full, 
The free, and fairly represented Whole ; 
For this they plann'd the holy guardian laws, 
Distinguish'd orders, animated arts, 
And with joint force Oppression chaining, set 
Imperial Justice at the helm ; yet still 
To them accountable : nor, slavish, dream'd 
That toiling millions must resign their weal, 
And all the honey of their search, to such 
As for themselves alone themselves have rais'd. 

Hence every form of cultivated life 
In order set, protected, and inspir'd, 



AUTUMN. 129 

Into perfection Wrought. Uniting all, 
Society grew numerous, big, polite, 
And happy. Nurse of art ! the city rear'd 
In beauteous pride her tower-encircled head ; 
And, stretching street on street, by thousands drew, 
From twining woody haunts, or the tough yew 
To bows strong-straining, her aspiring sons. 

Then Commerce brought into the public walk 
The busy merchant; the big warehouse built ; 
Rais'd the strong crane ; chok'd up the loaded street 
With foreign plenty ; and thy stream, Thames, 
Large, gentle, deep, majestic, king of floods ! 
Choose for his grand resort. On either hand, 
Like a long wintry forest, groves of masts 
Shot up their spires ; the bellying sheet between 
Possess'd the breezy void ; the sooty hulk 
Steer'd sluggish on ; the splendid barge along 
Row'd, regular, to harmony ; around, 
The boat, light skimming, stretch'd its oary wings ; 
While deep the various voice of fervent toil 
From bank to bank increas'd % whence ribb'd with 
To bear the British thunder, black, and bold, [oak, 
The roaring vessel rush'd into the main. 

Then too the pillar'd dome, magnific, heav'd 
Its ample roof ; and Luxury within 
Pour'd out her glitt'ring stores : the canvass smooth, 
With glowing life protuberant, to the view 
Embodied rose ; the statue seem'd to breathe, 
And soften into flesh, beneath the touch 



130 AUTUMN. 

Of forming art, imagination-flush'd. 

All is the gift of Industry ; whate'er 
Exalts, embellishes, and renders life 
Delightful. Pensive Winter cheer'd by him 
Sits at the social fire, and happy hears 
Th' excluded tempest idly rave along ; 
Hisharden'd fingers deck the gaudy Spring; 
Without him Summer were an arid waste ; 
Nor to th' Autumnal months could thus transmit 
Those full, mature, immeasurable stores, 
That, waving round, recall my wandering song, 

Soon as the morning trembles o'er the sky, 
And, unperceiv'd, unfolds the spreading day ; 
Before the ripen'd field the reapers stand, 
In fair array ; each by the lass he loves, 
To bear the rougher part, and mitigate 
By nameless gentle offices her toil. 
At once they stoop and swell the lusty sheaves ; 
While through their cheerful band the rural talk,. 
The rural scandal, and the rural jest, 
Fly harmless to deceive the tedious time, 
And steal unfelt the sultry hours away. 
Behind the master walks, builds up the shocks; 
And, conscious, glancing oft on every side 
His sated eye, feels his heart heave with joy. 
The gleaners spread around, and here and there, 
Spike after spike, their scanty harvest pick. 
Be not too narrow, husbandmen ! but fling 
From the full sheaf, with charitable stealth, 



AUTUMN. 131 

The liberal handful. Think, oh ! grateful think ! 
How good the God of harvest is to you ; 
Who pours abundance o'er your flowing fields ; 
While these unhappy partners of your kind 
Wide-hover round you, like the fowls of heaven, 
And ask their humble dole. The various turns 
Of fortune ponder; that your sons may want 
What now, with hard reluctance, faint, ye give. 
The lovely young Lavinia once had friends \ 
And Fortune smil'd, deceitful, on her birth. 
For, in her helpless years depriv'd of all, 
Of every stay, save Innocence and Heaven, 
She, with her widow'd mother, feeble, old, 
And poor, liv'd in a cottage, far retir'd 
Among the windings of a woody vale ; 
By solitude and deep surrounding shades, 
But more by bashful modesty, conceal'd. 
Together thus they shunn'd the cruel scorn 
Which virtue, sunk to poverty, would meet 
From giddy passion and low-minded pride : 
Almost on Nature's common bounty fed ; 
Like the gay birds that sung them to repose, 
Content, and careless of to-morrow's fare. 
Her form was fresher than the morning rose, 
When the dew wets its leaves ; unstain'd and pure, 
As is the lily, or the mountain snow. 
The modest Virtues mingled in her eyes, 
Still on the ground dejected, darting all 
Their humid beams into the blooming flowers :' 



132 AUTUMN. 

Or when the mournful tale her mother told, 
Of what her faithless fortune promis'd once, 
ThrilFd in her thought, they, like the dewy star 
Of evening, shone in tears. A native grace 
Sat fair proportion'd on her polish'd limbs, 
Veil'd in a simple robe, their best attire. 
Beyond the pomp of dress ; for loveliness 
Needs not the foreign aid of ornament, 
But is when unadorn'd, adorn'd the most 
Thoughtless of beauty, she was Beauty's self, 
Kecluse amid the close-embowering woods. 
As in the hollow breast of Appenine, 
Beneath the shelter of encircling hills, 
A myrtle rises, far from human eye, 
And breathes its balmy fragrance o'er the wild; 
So flourish'd blooming, and unseen by all, 
The sweet Lavinia; till, at length, compell'd 
By strong Necessity's supreme command, 
With smiling patience in her looks, she went 
To glean Palemon's fields. The pride of swains 
Palemon was, the generous, and the rich; 
Who led the rural life in all its joy 
And elegance, such as Arcadian song 
Transmits from ancient uncorrupted times ; 
When tyrant custom had not shackled man, 
But free to follow Nature was the mode. 
He then, his fancy with autumnal scenes 
Amusing, chanc'd beside the reaper-train 
To walk, when poor Lavinia drew his eye ; 



* AUTUMN. 133 

Unconscious of her power, and turning quick 
With unaffected blushes from his gaze : 
He saw her charming, but he saw not half 
The charms her down-cast modesty conceal'd. 
That very moment love and chaste desire 
Sprung in his bosom, to himself unknown ; 
For still the world prevail'd, and its dread laugh, 
Which scarce the firm philosopher can scorn, 
Should his heart own a gleaner in the field; 
And thus in secret to his soul he sigh'd: — 

" What pity ! that so delicate a form, 
By beauty kindled, where enlivening sense 
And more than vulgar goodness seem to dwell, 
Should be devoted to the rude embrace 
Of some indecent clown ! she looks, methinks, 
Of old Acasto's line ; and to my mind 
Recalls that patron of my happy life, 
From whom my liberal fortune took its rise ; 
Now to the dust gone down ; his houses, lands, 
And once fair-spreading family, dissolv'd. 
'Tis said, that in some lone obscure retreat, 
Urg'd by remembrance sad, and decent pride, 
Far from those scenes which knew their better days, 
His aged widow and his daughter live, 
Whom yet my fruitless search could never find. 
Romantic wish ! would this the daughter were !" 

When, strict inquiring, from herself he found 
She was the same, the daughter of his friend, 
Of bountiful Acasto ; who can speak 



134 AUTUMN. 

The mingled passions that surpris'd his heart, 
And through his nerves in shivering transport ran ? 
Then blazM his smother'd flame, avow'd, and bold ; 
And as he view'd her, ardent, o'er and o'er, 
Love, gratitude, and pity wept at once. 
Confus'd, and frighten'd at his sudden tears, 
Her rising beauties flush'd a higher bloom, 
As thus Palemon, passionate and just, 
Pour'd out the pious rapture of his soul : 

"And art thou then Acasto's dear remains? 
She, whom my restless gratitude has sought, 
So long in vain ? heavens ! the very same. 
The soften 'd image of my noble friend, 
Alive his every look, his every feature, 
More elegantly touch'd. Sweeter than Spring t 
Thou sole surviving blossom from the root 
That nourish'd up my fortune ! say, ah where, 
In what sequester'd desert, hast thou drawn 
The kindest aspect of delighted heaven ? 
Into such beauty spread, and blown so fair; 
Though Poverty's cold wind, and crushing rain, 
Beat keen, and heavy, on thy tender years ? 
O let me now, into a richer soil, 
Transplant thee safe! where vernal suns, and showers,. 
Diffuse their warmest, largest influence ; 
And of my garden be the pride and joy ! 
Ill it befits thee, oh it ill befits 
Acasto's daughter, his, whose open stores, 
Though vast, were little to his ampler heart, . 



AUTUMN. 135 

The father of a country, thus to pick 
The veiy refuse of those harvest-fields, 
Which from his bounteous friendship I enjoy. 
Then throw that shameful pittance from thy hand, 
But ill apply'd to such a rugged task ; 
The fields, the master, all, my fair, are thine ; 
If to the various blessings which thy house 
Has on me lavish'd, thou wilt add that bliss, 
That dearest bliss, the power of blessing thee !" 

Here ceas'd the youth : yet still his speaking eye 
Express'd the sacred triumph of his soul, 
With conscious virtue, gratitude, and love, 
Above the vulgar joy divinely rais'd. 
Nor waited he reply. Won by the charm 
Of goodness irresistible, and all 
In sweet disorder lost, she blush'd consent. 
The news immediate to her mother brought, 
While, pierc'd with anxious thought she pin'd away 
The lonely moments for Lavinia's fate ; 
Amaz'd, and scarce believing what she heard, 
Joy seiz'd her wither'd veins, and one bright gleam 
Of setting life shone on her evening-hours : 
Not less enraptur'd than the happy pair ; 
Who flourish'd long in tender bliss, and rear'd 
A numerous offspring, lovely like themselves, 
And good, the grace of all the country round* 

Defeating oft the labours of the year, 
The sultry south collects a potent blast. 
At first, the groves are scarcely seen to stir 



136 AUTUMN, 

Their trembling tops ; and a still murmur runs 
Along the soft-inclining fields of corn. 
But as th' aerial tempest fuller swells, 
And in one mighty stream, invisible, 
Immense, the whole excited atmosphere, 
Impetuous rushes o'er the sounding world; 
Strain'd to the root, the stooping forest pours 
A rustling shower of yet untimely leaves. 
High-beat, the circling mountains eddy in, 
From the bare wild, the dissipated storm, 
And send it in a torrent down the vale. 
Expos'd, and naked, to its utmost rage, 
Through all the sea of harvest rolling round, 
The billowy plain floats wide ; nor can evade, 
Though pliant to the blast, its seizing force ; 
Or whirl'd in air, or into vacant chaff 
Shook waste. And sometimes too a burst of rain, 
Swept from the black horizon, broad, descends 
In one continuous flood. Still over head 
The mingling tempest weaves its gloom, and still 
The deluge deepens ; till the fields around 
Lie sunk, and flatted, in the sordid wave. 
Sudden, the ditches swell ; the meadows swim. 
Red, from the hills, innumerable streams 
Tumultuous roar ; and high above its banks 
The river lift ; before whose rushing tide, 
Herds, flocks, and harvests, cottages, and swains, 
Roll mingled down ; all that the winds had spar'd 
In one wild moment ruin'd j the big hopes, 



AUTUMN. 137 

And well-earn'd treasures of the painful year. 

Fled to some eminence, the husbandman, 

Helpless, beholds the miserable wreck 

Driving along ; his drowning ox at once 

Descending, with his labours scatter'd round, 

He sees ; and instant o'er his shivering thought 

Comes Winter unprovided, and a train 

Of claimant children dear. Ye masters, then, 

Be mindful of the rough laborious hand 

That sinks you soft in elegance and ease ; 

Be mindful of those limbs in russet clad 

Whose toil to yours is warmth and graceful pride ; 

And, oh ! be mindful of that sparing board, 

Which covers yours with luxury profuse, 

Makes your glass sparkle, and your sense rejoice I 

Nor cruelly demand what the deep rains, 

And all-involving winds, have swept away. 

Here the rude clamour of the sportsman's joy, 
The gun fast thundering, and the winded horn, 
Would tempt the Muse to sing the rural game : 
How in his mid-career the spaniel struck, 
Stiff, by the tainted gale, with open nose, 
Outstretch'd, and finely sensible, draws full, 
Fearful, and cautious, on the latent prey ; 
As in the sun the circling covey bask 
Their varied plumes, and watchful every way, 
Through the rough stubble turn the secret eye. 
Caught in the meshy snare, in vain they beat 
Their idle wings, entangled more and more : 
12* 



138 AUTUMN. 

Nor on the surges of the boundless air, 
Though borne triumphant, are they safe ; the gun, 
Glanc'd just, and sudden, from the fowler's eye 
O'ertakes their sounding pinions : and again, 
Immediate, brings them fr >m the towering wing, 
Dead to the ground ; or drives them wide-dispers'd. 
Wounded, and wheeling various, down the wind. 

These are not subjects for the peaceful Muse, 
Nor will she stain with such her spotless song: 
Then most delighted, when she social sees 
The whole mix'd animal-creation round 
Alive, and happy. 'Tis not j »y to her, 
This falsely-cheerful barbarous game of death, 
This rage of pleasure, which the restless youth 
Awakes, impatient, with the gleaming morn: 
When beasts of prey retire, that all night long,'; 
Ursfd by necessity, had rang'd the dark, 
As if their conscious ravage shunn'd the light, 
Asham'd Not so the steady tyrant Man, 
Who with the thoughtless insolence of power 
Inflam'd, beyond the most infuriate wrath 
Of the worst monster that e'er roam'd the waste, 
For sport alone pursues the cruel chase, 
Amid the beamings of the gentle days. 
Upbraid, ye ravening tribes, our wanton rage, 
For hunger kindles you, and lawless want; 
But lavish fed, in Nature's bounty roll'd, 
To joy at anguish, and delight in blood, 
Is what .your horrid bosoms never knew. 



AUTUMN. 139 

Poor is the triumph o'er the timid hare ! 
Scar'd from the corn, and now to some lone seat 
Retir'd : the rushy fen ; the ragged furze, 
Stretch'd o'er the stony heath ; the stubble chapt; 
The thistly lawn ; the thick entangled broom ; 
Of the same friendly hue, the wither'd fern ; 
The fallow ground laid open to the sun, 
Concoctive ; and the nodding sandy bank, 
Hung o'er the mazes of the mountain brook. 
Vain is her best precaution ; though she sits 
Conceal'd, with folded ears ; unsleeping eyes, 
By Nature rais'd to take th' horizon in; 
And head couch'd close betwixt her hairy feet, 
In act to spring away. The scented dew 
Betrays her early labyrinth ; and deep, 
In scatter'd sullen openings, far behind, 
With every breeze she hears the coming storm. 
But nearer, and more frequent, as it loads 
The sighing gale, she springs amaz'd, and all 
The savage soul of game is up at once: 
The pack full-opening, various ; the shrill horn, 
Resounded from the hills ; the neighing steed, 
"Wild for the chase ; and the loud hunter's shout; 
O'er a weak, harmless, flying creature, all 
Mix'd in mad tumult, and discordant joy. 

The stag, too, singled from the herd, where long 
He rang'd the branching monarch of the shades, 
Before the tempest drives. At first, in speed 
He, sprightly, puts his faith ; and, rous'd by fear, 



140 AUTUMN. 

Gives all his swift aerial soul to flight ; 
Against the breeze he darts, that way the more 
To leave the lessening murderous cry behind : 
Deception short ! though fleeter than the winds 
Blown o'er the keen-air'd mountain by the north, 
He bursts the thickets, glances through the glades, 
And plunges deep into the wildest wood ; 
If slow, yet sure, adhesive to the track, 
Hot-steaming, up behind him come again 
Th' inhuman rout, and from the shady depth 
Expel him, circling through his every shift. 
He sweeps the forest oft ; and sobbing sees 
The glades, mild opening to the golden day ; 
Where, in kind contest, with his butting friends 
He wont to struggle, or his loves enjoy. 
Oft in the full-descending flood he tries 
To lose the scent, and lave his burning sides: 
Oft seeks the herd ; the watchful herd, alarm'd, 
With selfish care avoid a brother's woe. 
What shall he do ? His once so vivid nerves, 
So full of buoyant spirit, now no more 
Inspire the course ; but fainting breathless toil, 
Sick, seizes on his heart : he stands at bay ; 
And puts his last weak refuge in despair. 
The big round tears run down his dappled face ; 
He groans in anguish : while the growling pack, 
Blood-happy, hang at his fair jutting chest, 
And mark his beauteous chequer'd sides with gore. 
Of this enough. But if the sylvan youth, 



AUTUMN. 141 

Whose fervent blood boils into violence, 
Must have the chase ; behold, despising flight, 
The rous'd-up lion, resolute, and slow, 
Advancing full on the protended spear, 
And coward-band, that circling wheel aloof. 
Slunk from the cavern, and the troubled wood, 
See the grim wolf; on him his shaggy foe 
Vindictive fix, and let the ruffian die : 
Or, growling horrid, as the brindled boar 
Grijis fell destruction, to the monster's heart 
Let the dart lighten from the nervous arm. 

These Britain knows not ; give, ye Britons, then 
Your sportive fury, pity less, to pour 
Loose on the nightly robber of the fold ; 
Him, from his craggy winding haunts unearth'd, 
Let all the thunder of the chase pursue. 
Throw the broad ditch behind you ; o'er the hedge 
High-bound, resistless ; nor the deep morass 
Refuse, but through the shaking wilderness 
Pick your nice way ; into the perilous flood 
Bear fearless, of the raging instinct full ; 
And as you ride the torrent, to the banks 
Your triumph sound sonorous, running round, 
From rock to rock, in circling echoes tost ; 
Then scale the mountains f o their woody tops; 
Rush down the dangerous steep ; and o'er the lawn, 
In fancy swallowing up the space between, 
Pour all your speed into the rapid game. 
For happy he ! who tops the wheeling chase; 



142 AUTUMN. 

Has every maze evolv'd, and every guile 
Disclos'd; who knows the merits of the pack; 
Who saw the villain seiz'd, and dying hard, 
Without complaint, though by an hundred mouths 
Relentless torn : O glorious he, beyond 
His daring peers ! when the retreating horn 
Calls them to ghostly halls of grey renown, 
With Avoodland honours grac'd ; the fox's fur, 
Depending decent from the roof ; and spread 
Round the drear walls, with antic - figures fierce, 
The stag's large front : he then is loudest heard, 
When the night staggers with severer toils, 
With feats Thessalian Centaurs never knew, 
And their repeated wonder shake the dome. 

But first the fuel'd chimney blazes wide; 
The tankards foam ; and the strong table groans 
Beneath the smoking sirloin, stretch 'd immense 
From side to side ; in which, with desperate knife. 
They deep incision make, and talk the while 
Of England's glory, ne'er to be defac'd 
While hence they borrow vigour : or amain 
Into the pasty plung'd, at intervals, 
If stomach keen can intervals allow, 
Relating all the glories of the chase. 
Then sated Hunger bids his brother Thirst 
Produce the mighty bowl ; the mighty bowl 
Swell'd high with fiery juice, steams liberal round 
A potent gale, delicious, as the breath 
Of Maia to the love-sick shepherdess, 






AUTUMN. 143 

On violets diffus'd, while soft she hears 
Her panting shepherd stealing to her arms. 
Nor wanting is the brown October, drawn, 
Mature and perfect, from his dark retreat 
Of thirty years ; and now his honest front 
Flames in the light refulgent, not afraid 
Ev'n with the vineyard's best produce to vie. 
To cheat the thirsty moments, Whist awhile 
Walks his dull round, beneath a cloud of smoke, 
Wreath'd, fragrant, from the pipe ; or the quick dice; 
In thunder leaping from the box, awake 
The sounding gammon ; while romp-loving miss 
Is haul'd about, in gallantry robust. 

At last these puling idlenesses laid 
Aside, frequent and full, the dry divan 
Close in firm circle ; and set, ardent, in 
For serious drinking, Nor evasion sly, 
Nor sober shift, is to the puking wretch 
Indulg'd apart ; but earnest, brimming bowls 
Lave every soul, the table floating round, 
And pavement, faithless to the fuddled foot. 
Thus as they swim in mutual swill, the talk, 
Vociferous at once from twenty tongues, 
Reels fast from theme to theme ; from horses, hounds, 
To church or mistress, politics or ghost, 
In endless mazes, intricate, perplex'd. 
Meantime, with sudden interruption, loud, 
Th' impatient catch bursts from the joyous heart; 
That moment touctfd is every kindred soul; 
And, opening in a full-mouth'd cry of joy, 



144 AUTUMN. 

The laugh, the slap, the jocund curse go round ; 
While, from their slumbers shook, the kennel'd 
Mix in the music of the day again. [hounds 

As when the tempest, that has vex'd the deep 
The dark night long, with fainter murmurs falls ; 
So gradual sinks their mirth. Their feeble tongues, 
Unable to take up the cumbrous word, 
Lie quite dissolv'd Before their maudlin eyes, 
Seen dim, and blue, the double tapers dance, 
Like the sun wading through the misty sky. 
Then, sliding soft, they drop. Confus'd above, 
Glasses and bottles, pipes and gazetteers, 
As if the table ev'n itself was drunk, 
Lie a wet broken scene ; and wide, below, 
Is heap'd the social slaughter : where astride 
The lubber Power in filthy triumph sits, 
Slumbrous, inclining still from side to side, 
And steeps them drench'd in potent sleep till morn. 
Perhaps some doctor, of tremendous paunch, 
Awful and deep, a black abyss of drink, 
Outlives them all ; and from his buried flock 
Retiring, full of rumination sad, 
Laments the weakness of these latter times. 
But if the rougher sex by this fierce sport 
Is hurried wild, let not such horrid joy 
E'er stain the bosom of the British Fair. 
Far be the spirit of the chase from them I 
Uncomely courage, unbeseeming skill ; 
To spring the fence, to rein the prancing steed .; 



AUTUMN. 145 

*The cap, the whip, the masculine attire; 
In which they roughen to the sense, and all 
The winning softness of their sex is lost. 
In them 'tis graceful to dissolve at woe ; 
With every motion, every word, to wave 
Quick o'er the kindling cheek the ready blush; 
And from the smallest violence to shrink 
Unequal, then the loveliest in their fears ; 
And by this silent adulation, soft, 
To their protection more engaging Man. 
O may their eyes no miserable sight, 
Save weeping lovers, see ! a nobler game, 
Through love's enchanting wiles pursued, yet fled, 
In chase ambiguous. May their tender limbs 
Float in the loose simplicity of dress ! 
And, fashion'd all to harmony, alone 
Know they to seize the captivated soul, 
In rapture warbled from love-breathing lips ; 
To teach the lute to languish ; with smooth step, 
Disclosing motion in its every charm, 
To swim along, and swell the ma^y dance ; 
To train the foliage o'er the snowy lawn ; 
To guide the pencil, turn the tuneful page; 
To lend new flavour to the fruitful year, 
And heighten Nature's dainties : in their race 
To rear their graces into second life ; 
To give society its highest taste ; 
Well-order'd home man's best delight to make ; 
And by submissive wisdom, modest skill, 
13 



146 AUTUMN. 

With every gentle care-eluding art, 
To raise the virtues, animate the bliss, 
And sweeten all the toils of human life : 
This be the female dignity, and praise. 

Ye swains now hasten to the hazel-bank ; 
Where, down yon dale, the wildly- win ding brook 
Falls hoarse from steep to steep. In close array, 
Fit for the thickets and the tangling shrub, 
Ye virgins come. For you their latest song 
The woodlands raise ; the clustering nuts for you 
The lover finds amid the secret shade ; 
And, where they burnish on the topmost bough, 
With active vigour crushes down the tree ; 
Or shakes them ripe from the resigning husk, 
A glossy shower, and of an ardent brown, 
As are the ringlets of Melinda's hair: 
Melinda ! form'd with every grace complete. 
Yet these neglecting, above beauty wise> 
And far transcending such a vulgar praise. 

Hence from the busy joy-resounding fields, 
In cheerful error, let us tread the maze 
Of Autumn, unconfin'd ; and taste, reviv'd, 
The breath of orchard big with bending fruit. 
Obedient to the breeze and beating ray, 
From the deep-loaded bough a mellow shower 
Incessant melts away. The juicy pear 
Lies, in a soft profusion, scatter'd round. 
A various sweetness swells the gentle race ; 
By Nature's all-refining hand prepar'd ; 



AUTUMN. 147 

Of tempered sun. and water, earth, and air, 
In ever-changing composition mix'd. 
Such, falling frequent through the chiller night, 
The fragrant stores, the wide-projected heaps 
Of apples, which the lusty-handed Year, 
Innumerous, o'er the blushing orchard shakes. 
A various spirit, fresh, delicious, keen, 
Dwells in their gelid pores ; and, active, points 
The piercing cider for the thirsty tongue: 
Thy native theme, and boon inspirertoo, 
Phillips, Pomona's bard, the second thou 
Who nobly durst, in rhyme-unfetter'd verse, 
With British freedom sing the British song : 
How, from Silurian vats, high-sparkling wines 
Foam in transparent floods ; some strong, to cheer 
The wintry revels of the labouring hind; 
And tasteful some, to cool the summer-hours. 

In this glad season, while his sweetest beams ' 
The sun sheds equal o'er the meeken'd day; 
Oh loose me in the green delightful walks 
Of, Doddington, thy seat, serene and plain ; 
Where simple Nature reigns; and every view, 
Diffusive, spreads the pure Dorsetian downs. 
In boundless prospect ; yonder shagg'd with wood, 
Here rich with harvest, and there white with flocks ! 
Meantime the grandeur of thy lofty dome, 
Far-splendid, seizes on the ravish'd eye. 
New beauties rise with each revolving day; 
JNew columns swell ; and still the fresh Spring finds 



148 AUTUMN. 

New plants to quicken, and new groves to green. 

Full of thy genius all ! the Muses' seat : 

Where ia the secret bower, and winding walk, 

For virtuous Young and thee they twine the bay. 

Here wandering oft, fird with the restless thirst 

Of thy applause, I solitary court 

Th' inspiring breeze : and meditate the book 

Of Nature ever open ; aiming thence, 

Warm from the heart, to learn the moral song. 

Here, as I steal along the sunny wall, 

Where Autumn basks, with fruit empurpled deep, 

My pleasing theme continual prompts my thought: 

Presents the downy peach ; the shining plum: 

The ruddy, fragrant, nectarine; and dark, 

Beneath his ample leaf, the luscious fig. 

The vine too here her curling tendrils shoots; 

Hangs out her clusters, glowing to the soiiih ; 

And scarcely wishes for a warmer sky. 

Turn we a moment Fancy's rapid flight 
To vigorous soils : and climes of fair extent; 
Where, by tbe potent sun elated high, 
The vineyard swells refulgent on the day; 
Spreads o'er tbe vale ; or up the mountain climbs, 
Profuse ; and drinks amid the sunny rocks. 
From cliff to cliff increas'd, the heighten 'd blaze. 
Low bend the weighty boughs. The clusters clear, 
Half through the foliage seen, or ardent flame, 
Or shine transparent; while perfection breathes 
White o'er the turgentiilin the living dew. 






AUTUMN. 149 

As thus they brighten with exalted juice, 

Touch'd into flavour by the minglirg ray* 

The rural youth and virgins o'er the field, 

Each fond for each to cull th' autumnal prime, 

Exulting rove, and speak the vintage nigh. 

Then comes the crushing swain ; the country floats, 

And foams unbounded with the mashy flood ; 

That by degrees fermented, and refin'd, 

Round the rais'd nations pours the cup of joy : 

The claret smooth, red as the lip we press 

In sparkling fancy, while we drain the bowl; 

The mellow-tasted burgundy ; and quick, 

As is the wit it gives, the gay champaign. 

Now, by the cool declining year condens'd, 
Descend the copious exhalations, check'd 
As up the middle sky unseen they stole, 
And roll the doubling fogs around the hill. 
No more the mountain, horrid, vast, sublime, 
Who pours a sweep of rivers from his sides, 
And high between contending kingdoms rears 
The rocky long division, fills the view 
With great variety ; but in a night 
Of gathering vapour, from the baffled sense 
Sinks dark and dreary Thence expanding far, 
The huge dusk, gradual, swallows up the plain: 
Vanish the woods : the dim-seen river seems 
Sullen, and slow, to roll the misty wave. 
Ev'n in the height of noon oppress'd, the sun 
Sheds weak, and blunt, his wide-refracted ray; 



150 AUTUMN. 

Whence glaring oft, with many a broaden'd orb, 
He fights the nations. Indistinct on earth, 
Seen through the turbid air. beyond the life 
Objects appear; and, wilder'd, o'er the waste 
The shepherd stalks gigantic. Till at last 
Wreath'd dun around, in deeper circles still 
Successive closing, sits the general fog 
Unbounded o'er the world ; and. mingling thick, 
A formless gray confusion covers alt. 
As when of old (so sung the Hebrew bard) 
Light, uncollected, through the chaos urg'd 
Its infant way ; nor Order yet had drawn 
His lovely train from out the dubious gloom. 

These roving mists, that constant now begin 
To smoke along the hilly country, these, 
With weighty rains, and melted Alpine snows, 
The mountain-cisterns till, those ample stores 
Of water, scoop'd among the hollow rocks; 
Whence gush the streams, the ceaseless fountains 
And their unfailing wealth the rivers draw. [play, 
Some sages say, that, where the numerous wave 
Forever lashes the resounding shore, 
Drill'd through the sandy stratum, every way r 
The waters with the sandy stratum rise; 
Amid whose angels infinitely strain'd, 
They joyful leave their jaggy salts behind, 
And^learand sweeten as they soak along. 
Nor stops the restless fluid, mounting still, 
Though oft amidst tlr irriguous vaie it springs; 



AUTUMN. 151 

But to the mountain courted by the sand, 

That leads it darkling on in faithful maze, 

Far from the parent-main, it boils again 

Fresh into day ; and all the glittering hill 

Is bright with spouting rills. But hence this vain 

Amusive drearn ! why should the waters love 

To take so far a journey to the hills, 

When the sweet valleys offer to their toil 

Inviting quiet, and a nearer bed ? 

Or if. by blind ambition led astray, 

They must aspire ; why should ihey sudden stop 

Among the broken mountain's rushy dells, 

And, ere they gain its highest beak, desert 

Tb' attractive sand tbat charm'd their course so long ? 

Besides, the bard agglomerating salts, 

The spoil of ages, would impervious choke 

Their secret channels; or, by slow degrees, 

High as the hills protrude the swelling vales : 

Old Ocean too, suck'd through the porous globe, 

Had long ere now forsook his horrid bed, 

And brought Deucalion's wafe.y times again. 

Say then, wbere lurk the vast eternal springs, 
That, like creating JNature, lie conceal'd 
From mortal eye, yet with their lavish stores 
Refresh the globe, and all its joyous tribes ! 
O thou pervading Genius, given to man, 
To trace the secrets of the dark abyss, 
O lay the mountains bare ! and wide display 
Their hidden structure to th' astonish'd view ! 



152 AUTUMN. 

Strip from the branching Alps their piny load \ 
The huge incumbrance of horrific woods 
From Asian Taurus, from Imaus stretch'd 
Athwart the roving Tartar's sullen bounds ! 
Give opening Hemus to my searching eye, 
And high Olympus pouring many a stream \ 
O from the sounding summits of the north, 
The Dofrine hills, through Scandinavia roll'd 
To furthest Lapland and the frozen main ; 
From lofty Caucases, far seen by those 
Who in the Caspian and black Euxine toil; 
From cold Riphean rocks, which the wild Russ 
Believes the stony girdle* of the world : 
And all the dreadful mountains, wrap ? d in storm, 
Whence wide Siberia draws her lonely floods ; 
O sweep th' eternal snows ! Hung o'er the deep, 
That ever works beneath his sounding base, 
Bid Atlas, propping heaven, as poets feign, 
His subterranean wonders spread ! unveil 
The miny caverns, blazing on the day, 
Of Abyssinia's cloud-compelling cliffs, 
And of the bending Mountains* of the Moon ! 
O'ertopping all these giant-sons of earth, 
Let the dire Andes, from the radiant line 



* The Muscovites call the Riphean Mountains Weliki Cameny. 
poys ; that is, the great stony Girdle : because they suppose them 
to encompass the whole earth. 

*A ranpe of mountains in Africa^hat surround almost all 
Monomotapa. 



AUTUMN. 153 

Stretch'd to the stormy seas that thunder round 

The southern pole, their hideous deeps unfold ! 

Amazing scene ! behold ! the glooms disclose, 

I see the rivers in their infant beds ! 

Deep, deep I hear them, labouring to get free j 

I see the leaning strata, artful rang'd ; 

The gaping fissures to receive the rains, 

The melting snows, and ever-dripping fogs. 

Strew'd bibulous above I see the sands, 

The pebbly gravel next, the layers then 

Of mingled moulds, of more retentive earths, 

The gutter'd rocks and mazy running clefts ; 

That, while the stealing moisture they transmit. 

Retard its motion, and forbid its waste. 

Beneath th' incessant weeping of these drains, 

I see the rocky siphons stretch'd immense, 

The mighty reservoirs, of harden'd chalk, 

Or stiff compacted clay, capacious form'd: 

O'erflowing thence, the congregated stores, 

The crystal treasures of the liquid world, 

Through the stirr'd sands a bubbling passage burst; 

And welling out, around the middle steep, 

Or from the bottoms of the bosom'd hills, 

In pure effusion flow. United, thus, 

Th' exhaling sun, the vapour-burden'd air, 

The gelid mountains, that to rain condens'd 

These vapours in continual current draw, 

And send them, o'er the fair-divided earth, 

•In bounteous rivers to the deep again, 



154 AUTUMN. 

A social commerce hold, and firm support 
The full-adjusted harmony of things. 

When Autumn scatters his departing gleams, 
Warn'd of approaching Winter, gather'd, play 
The swallow-people ; and toss'd wide around, 
O'er the calm sky, in convolution swift, 
The featherd eddy floats : rejoicing once, 
Ere to their wintry slumbers they retire ; 
In clusters clung, beneath the mouldering bank, 
And where, unpierc'd by frost, the cavern sweats. 
Or rather into warmer climes convey'd, 
With other kindred birds of season, there 
They twitter cheerful, till the vernal months 
Invite them welcome back : for, thronging, now 
Innumerous wings are in commotion all. 

Where the Rhine loses his majestic force 
In Belgian plains, won from the raging deep, 
By diligence amazing, and the strong 
Unconquerable hand of Liberty, 
The stork-assembly meets ; nor many a day, 
Consulting deep, and various, ere they take 
Their arduous voyage through the liquid sky. 
And now their route design'd, their leaders chose, 
Their tribes adjusted, clean'd their vigorous wings; 
And many a circle, many a short essay, 
Wheel'd round and round, in congregation full 
The figured flight ascends ; and, riding high 
Th' aerial billows, mixes with the clouds. 



AUTUMN. 155 

Or where the Northern ocean, in vast whirls, 
Boils round the naked melancholy isles 
Of furthest Thule, and th' Atlantic surge 
Pours in among the stormy Hebrides ; 
Who can recount what transmigrations there 
Are annual made ? what nations come and go ? 
And how the living clouds on clouds arise ? 
Infinite wings ! till all the plume dark air, 
And rude resounding shore are one wild cry. 

Here the plain harmless native his small flock, 
And herd diminutive of many hues, 
Tends on the little island's verdant swell, 
The shepherd's sea-girt reign ; or, to the rocks 
Dire-clinging, gathers his ovarious food ; 
Or sweeps the fishy shore ! or treasures up 
The plumage, rising full, to form the bed 
Of luxury. And here awhile the Muse, 
High hovering o'er the broad cerulean scene, 
Sees Caledonia, in romantic view : 
Her airy mountains, from the waving main, 
Invested with a keen diffusive sky. 
Breathing the soul acute ; her forests huge, 
Incult, robust, and tall, by Nature's hand 
Planted of old ; her azure lakes between, 
Pour'd out extensive, and of watery wealth 
i Full ; winding deep, and green, her fertile vales; 
I With many a cool translucent brimming Hood 
i Wash'd lovely, from the Tweed (pure parent stream, 
1 Whose pastoral banks first heard my Doric reed, 



156 AUTUMN. 

With, silvan Jed, thy tributary brook) 

To where the north-inflated tempest foams 

O'er Orca's or Betubium's highest peak : 

Nurse of a people, in Misfortune's school 

Train'd up to hardy deeds ; soon visited 

By Learning, when before the gothic rage 

She took her western flight. A manly race, 

Of unsubmitling spirit, wise, and brave ; 

Who still through bleeding ages struggled hard, 

(As well unhappy Wallace can attest, 

Great patriot-hero ! ill-requited chief! 

To hold a generous undiminished state • 

Too much in vain! Hence of unequal bounds 

Impatient, and by tempting glory borne 

O'er every land, for every land their life 

Has flow'd profuse, their piercing genius plann'd, 

And swell'd the pomp of peace their faithful toil. 

As from their own clear north, in radiant streams, 

Bright over Europe bursts the boreal morn. 

Oh ! is there not some patriot, in whose power 
That best, that godlike luxury is plac'd, 
Of blessing thousands, thousands yet unborn, 
Through late posterity ? some, large of soul, 
To cheer dejected industry ? to give 
A double harvest to the pining swain ? 
And teach the labouring hand the sweets of toil ? 
How, by the finest art, the native robe 
To weave ; how white as hyperborean snow, 
To form the lucid lawn ; with venturous oar 
How to dash wide the billow ; nor look on, 



AUTUMN. 157 

Shamefully passive, while Batavian fleets 

Defraud us of the glittering finny swarms, 

That heave our friths, and crowd upon our shores ; 

How all enlivening trade to rouse, and wing 

The prosperous sail, from every growing port, 

Uninjur'd, round the sea-encircled globe ; 

And thus, in soul united as in name, 

Bid Britain reign the mistress of the deep ? 

Yes, there are such. And full on thee, Argyle, 
Her hope, her stay, her darling, and her boast, 
From her first patriots and her heroes sprung, 
Thy fond imploring country turns her eye ; 
In thee, with all a mother's triumph, sees 
Her every virtue, every grace combin'd, 
Her genius, wisdom, her engaging turn, 
Her pride of honour, and her courage tried, 
Calm, and intrepid, in the very throat 
Of sulphurous war, on Tenier's dreadful field. 
Nor less the palm of peace in wreaths thy brow : 
For, powerful as thy sword, from thy rich tongue 
Persuasion flows, and wins the high debate ; 
While mix'd in thee combine the charm of youth, 
The force of manhood, and the depth of age. 
Thee, Forbes, too, whom every worth attends, 
As truth sincere, as weeping friendship kind, 
Thee, truly generous, and in silence great, 
Thy country feels through her reviving arts, 
Plann'd by thy wisdom, by thy soul inform'd ; 
And seldom has she known a friend like thee. 
14 



158 AUTUMN. 

But see the fading many-colour'd woods, 
Shade deepening over shade, the country round 
Imbrown ; a crowded umbrage, dusk, and dun, 
Of every hue, from wan declining green, 
To sooty dark. These now the lonesome Muse, 
Low-whispering, lead into their leaf-strown walks,, 
And give the Season in its latest view. 

Meantime, light-shadowing all, a sober calm 
Fleeces unbounded ether : whose least wave 
Stands tremulous, uncertain where to turn 
The gentle current : while illumin'd wide, 
The dewy-skirted clouds imbibe the sun. 
And through their lucid veil his soften'd force 
Shed o'er the peaceful world. Then is the time, 
For those whom Wisdom and whom Nature charm, 
To steal themselves from the degenerate crowd, 
And soar above this little scene of things : 
To tread low-thoughted Vice beneath their feet ; 
To sooth the throbbing passions into peace; 
And woo lone Quiet in her silent walks. 

Thus solitary, and in pensive guise, 
Oft let me wander o'er the russet mead, 
And through the sadden'd grove, where scarce is 
One dying strain, to cheer the woodman's toil, [heard 
Happly some widow'd songster pours his plaint, 
Far, in faint warblings, through the tawny copse: 
While congregated thrushes, linnets, larks, 
And each wild throat, whose artless strains so late 
Swell'd all the music of the swarming shades, 



AUTUMN. 159 

Robb'd of their tuneful souls, now shivering sit 
On the dead tree, a dull despondent flock ; 
With not a brightness waving o'er their plumes, 
And nought save chattering discord in their noteu. 
let not, aim'd from some inhuman eye, 
The gun the music of the coming year 
Destroy ; and harmless, unsuspecting barm, 
Lay the weak tribes a miserable prey, 
In mingled murder, fluttering on the ground! 

The pale descending year, yet pleasing still, 
A gentler mood inspires ; for now the leaf 
Incessant rustles from the mournful grove; 
Oft startling such as, studious, walk below, 
And slowly circles through the waving air. 
But should a quicker breeze amid the boughs. 
Sob, o'er the sky the leafy deluge streams ; 
Till chok'd, and matted with the dreary shower* 
The forest-walks, at every rising gale,. 
Roll wide the wither'd Avaste, and whistle bleak. 
Fled is the blasted verdure of the fields ; 
And, shrunk into their beds, the flowery race 
Their sunny robes resign. Ev'n what remain'd 
Of stronger fruits falls from the naked tree ; 
And woods, fields, gardens, orchards, all aroUnd 
The desolated prospect thrills the soul. 
He comes ! he comes ! in every breeze the Powet 
Of Philosophic Melancholy comes ! 
His near approach the sudden-starting tear, 
The glowing cheek, the mild dejected air* 



160 AUTUMN. 

The soften'd feature, and a beating heart, 

Pierc'd deep with many a virtuous pang, declare* 

O'er all the soul his sacred influence breathes! 

Inflames imagination ; through the breast 

Infuses every tenderness ; and far 

Beyond dim earth exalts the swelling thought. 

Ten thousand thousand fleet ideas, such 

As never mingled with the vulgar dream, 

Crowd fast into the mind's creative eye. 

As fast the correspondent passions rise, 

As varied, and as high : Devotion rais'd 

To rapture, and divine astonishment ; 

The love of Nature unconfin'd, and, chief, 

Of human race ; the large ambitious wish, 

To make them blest ; the sigh for suffering worth 

Lost in obscurity ; the noble scorn 

Of tyrant-pride ; the fearless great resolve \ 

The wonder which the dying patriot draws, 

Inspiring glory through remotest time ; 

Th' awaken'd throb for virtue, and for fame ; 

The sympathies of love, and friendship dear : 

With all the social offspring of the heart. 

Oh ! bear me then to vast embowering shades, 
To twilight groves, and visionary vales ; 
To weeping grottos, and prophetic glooms ; 
Where angel forms athwart the solemn dusk 
Tremendous sweep, or seem to sweep along ; 
And voices more than human, through the void 
Deep-sounding, seize th' enthusiastic ear ! 



AUTUMN. 161 

Or is this gloom too much ? Then lead, ye powers, 
That o'er the garden and the rural seat 
Preside, which shining through the cheerful land 
In countless numbers blest Britannia sees ; 
O lead me to the wide-extended walks, 
The fair majestic paradise of Stowe !* 
Not Persian Cyrus on Ionia's shore 
E'er saw such sylvan scenes ; such various art 
By genius fir'd, such ardent genius tam'd 
By cool judicious art ; that, in the strife, 
All-beauteous Nature fears to be outdone. 
And there, O Pitt, thy country's early boast, 
There let me sit beneath the shelter'd slopes, 
Or in that Templet where, in future times, 
Thou well shalt merit a distinguish'd name ; 
And, with thy converse blest, catch the last smiles 
Of Autumn beaming o'er the yellow woods. 
While there with thee th' enchanted round I walk, 
The regulated wild, gay Fancy then 
Will tread in thought the groves of attic land \ 
W T ill from thy standard taste refine her own, 
Correct her pencil to the purest truth 
Of Nature, or. the unimpassion'd shades 
Forsaking, raise it to the human mind. 
Or if hereafter she, with juster hand, 
Shall draw the tragic scene, instruct her, thotf, 

* The seat of Lord Cobham. 
■t The Temple of Virtue in Stowe Gardens 
14* 



162 AUTUMN. 

To mark the varied movements of the heart, 
What every decent character requires, 
And every passion speaks : O through her strain 
Breathe thy pathetic eloquence ! that moulds 
Th' attentive senate, charms, persuades, exalts, 
Of honest Zeal th' indignant lightning throws, 
And shakes Corruption on her venal throne. 
While thus we talk, and through Elysian vales 
Delighted rove, perhaps a sigh escapes : 
What pity, Cobham, thou thy verdant files 
Of order'd trees shouldst here inglorious range, 
Instead of squadrons flaming o'er the field, 
And long embattled hosts ! when the proud foe, 
The faithless vain disturber of mankind, 
Insulting Gaul, has rous'd the world to war; 
When keen, once more, within their bounds to press 
Those polish'd robbers, those ambitious slaves, 
The British youth would hail thy wise command, 
Thy temper'd ardour and thy veteran skill. 

The western sun withdraws the shorten'd day ', 
And humid Evening, gliding o'er the sky, 
In her chill progress, to the ground condens'd 
The vapours throws. Where creeping waters ooze, 
Where marshes stagnate, and where rivers wind, 
Cluster the rolling fogs, and swim along 
The dusky-mantled lawn. Meanwhile the Moon 
Full-orb'd, and breaking through the scatter'd clouds, 
Shows her broad visage in the crimson'd east. 
Turn'd to the sun direct, her spotted disk, 



AUTUMN. 163 

Where mountains rise, umbrageous dales descend, 

And caverns deep, as optic tube descries, 

A smaller earth, gives us his blaze again, 

Void of its flame, and sheds a softer day. 

Now through the passing cloud she seems to stoop. 

Now up the pure cerulean rides sublime. 

Wide the pale deluge floats, and streaming mild 

O'er the sky'd mountain to the shadowy vale, 

While rocks and floods reflect the quivering gleam, 

The whole air whitens with a boundless tide 

Of silver radiance, trembling round the world. 

But when half blotted from the sky her light, 
Fainting, permits the starry fires to burn 
With keener lustre through the depth of heaven; 
Or near extinct her deaden'd orb appears, 
And scarce appears, of sickly beamless white ; 
Oft in this season, silent from the north 
A blaze of meteors shoots : ensweeping first 
The lower skies, they all at once converge 
High to the crown of heaven, and all at once 
Relapsing quick, as quickly reascend, 
And mix, and thwart, extinguish, and renew. 
All ether coursing in a maze of light. 

From look to look, contagious through the crowcl, 
The panic runs, and into wondrous shapes 
Th' appearance throws : armies in meet array, 
Throng'd with aerial spears, and steeds of fire ; 
Till the long lines of full-extended war 
In bleeding fight commixt, the sanguine flood 



164 AUTUMN. 

Rolls a broad slaughter o'er the plains of heaven. 

As thus they scan the visionary scene, 

On all sides swells the superstitious din, 

Incontinent ; and busy frenzy talks 

Of blood and battle ; cities overturn'd, 

And late at night in swallowing earthquake sunk r 

Or hideous wrapt in fierce ascending flame; 

Of sallow famine, inundation, storm ; 

Of pestilence, and every great distress ; 

Empires subvers'd, when ruling fate has struck 

Th' unalterable hour : ev'n Nature's self 

Is deem'd to totter on the brink of time. 

Not so the man of philosophic eye, 

And inspect sage ; the waving brightness he 

Curious surveys, inquisitive to know 

The causes, and materials, yet unfix'd, 

Of this appearance beautiful and new. 

Now black, and deep, the night begins to fall, 
A shade immense. Sunk in the quenching gloom, 
Magnificent and vast, are heaven and earth. 
Order confounded lies ; all beauty void j 
Distinction lost ; and gay variety 
One universal blot : such the fair power 
Of light, to kindle and create the whole. 
Drear is the state of the benighted wretch, 
Who then, bewilder'd, wanders through the dark,,. 
Full of pale fancies, and chimeras huge ; 
Nor visited by one directive ray, 
From cottage streaming, or from airy hall. 



AUTUMN. 165 

Perhaps impatient as he stumbles on, 
Struck from the root of slimy rushes, blue, 
The wild-fire scatters round, or gather'd trails 
A length of flame deceitful o'er the moss : 
Whither decoy'd by the fantastic blaze, 
Now lost and now renew'd, he sinks absorpt, 
Rider and horse, amid the miry gulf: 
While still, from day to day, his pining wife 
And plaintive children his return await, 
In wild conjecture lost. At other times, 
Sent by the better Genius of the night, 
Innoxious, gleaming on the horse's mane, 
The meteor sits ; and shows the narrow path, 
That winding leads through pits of death, or else 
Instructs him how to take the dangerous ford. 

The lengthen'd night elaps'd, the Morning shines 
Serene, in all her dewy beauty bright, 
Unfolding fair the last autumnal day. 
And now the mounting sun dispels the fog; 
The rigid hoar-frost melts before his beam ; 
And hung on every spray, on every blade 
Of grass, the myriad dew-drops twinkle round. 

Ah, see where robb'd, and murder'd, in that pit 
Lies the still heaving hive ! at evening snatch'd, 
Beneath the cloud of guilt-concealing night, 
And fix'd o'er sulphur : while, not dreaming ill, 
The happy people, in their waxen cells, 
Sat tending public cares, and planning schemes 
Of temperance, for Winter poor ; rejoic'd 



166 AUTUMN. 

To mark, full flowing round, their copious stores. 
Sudden the dark oppressive steam ascends^ 
And, us'd to milder scents, the tender race, 
By thousands, tumble from their honied domes, 
Convolv'd, and agonizing in the dust. 
And was it then for this you roam'd the Spring, 
Intent from flower to flower ? for this you toil'd 
Ceaseless the burning Summer-heats away ? 
For this in Autumn search'd the blooming waste/ 
Nor lost one sunny gleam ? for this sad fate ? 
O Man ! tyrannic lord ! how long, how long 
Shall prostrate Nature groan beneath your rage. 
Awaiting renovation ? when oblig'd, 
Must you destroy ? of their ambrosial food 
Can you not borrow; and, in just return, 
Afford them shelter from the wintry winds ; 
Or, as the sharp year pinches, with their own 
Again regale them on some smiling day ? 
See w T here the stony bottom of their town 
Looks desolate, and wild ; with here and there 
A helpless number, who the ruiu'd state 
Survive, lamenting weak, cast out to death. 
Thus a proud city, populous and rich, 
Full of the works of peace, and high in joy, 
At theatre or feast, or sunk in sleep, 
(As late, Palermo, was thy fate,) is seiz'd 
By some dread earthquake, and convulsive hurl'd 
Sheer from the black foundation, stench-involv'd, 
Into a gulf of blue sulphureous flame. 



AUTUMN. 16f 

Hence every harsher sight ! for now the day, 
O'er heaven and earth diffus'd, grows warm and high, 
Infinite splendour! wide investing all. 
How still the breeze ! save what the filmy threads 
Of dew evaporate brushes from the plain. 
How clear the cloudless sky ! how deeply ting'd 
With a peculiar blue ! th' ethereal arch 
How swell'd immense ! amid whose azure thron'd 
The radiant sun how gay ! how calm below 
The gilded earth ! the harvest-treasures all 
Now gather'd in, beyond the rage of storms, 
Sure to the swain ; the circling fence shut up ; 
And instant Winter's utmost rage defy'd. 
While, loose to festive joy, the country round 
Laughs with the loud sincerity of mirth, 
Shook to the wind their cares. The toil-strung youth, 
By the quick sense of music taught alone, 
Leaps wildly graceful in the lively dance. 
Her every charm abroad, the village-toast, 
Young, buxom, warm, in native beauty rich, 
Darts not unmeaning looks ; and, where her eye 
Points an approving smile, with double force, 
The cudgel rattles, and the wrestler twines. 
Age too shines out ; and, garrulous, recounts 
The feats of youth. Thus they rejoice ; nor think 
That, with to-morrow's sun, their annual toil 
Begins again the never-ceasing round. 

Oh, knew he but his happiness, of men 
The happiest he ! who far from public rage, 



168 AUTUMN. 



Deep in the vale, with a choice few retired, 

Drinks the pure pleasures of the Rural Life. 

What though the dome be wanting, whose proud gate, 

Each morning, vomits out the sneaking crowd 

Of flatterers false, and in their turn abus'd ? 

Vile intercourse ! what though the glittering robe 

Of every hue reflected light can give, 

Or floating loose, or stiff with mazy gold, 

The pride and gaze of fools ! oppress him not ? 

What though, from utmost land and sea purvey'd, 

For him each rarer tributary life 

Bleeds not, and his insatiate table heaps 

With luxury, and death ? What though his bowl 

Flames not with costly juice ; nor sunk in beds, 

Oft of gay care, he tosses out the night, 

Or melts the thoughtless hours in idle state ? 

What though he knows not those fantastic joys, 

That still amuse the wanton, still deceive ; 

A face of pleasure, but a heart of pain ; 

Their hollow moments undelighted all ? 

Sure peace is his ; a solid life, estrang'd 

To disappointment, and fallacious hope : 

Rich in content, in Nature's bounty rich, 

In herbs and fruits ; whatever greens the Spring, 

When heav'n descends in sho w'rs ; or bends the bough, 

When Summer reddens, and when Autumn beams ;. 

Or in the wintry glebe whatever lies 

Conceal'd, and fattens with the richest sap : 

These are not wanting ; nor the milky drove, 






AUTUMN. 169 

Luxuriant, spread o'er all the lowing vale ; 
Nor bleating mountains ; nor the chide of streams, 
And hum of bees, inviting sleep sincere 
Into the guiltless breast, beneath the shade, 
Or thrown at large amid the fragrant hay ; 
Nor aught besides of prospect, grove, or song, 
Dim grottos, gleaming lakes, and fountain clear. 
Here too dwells simple Truth ; plain Innocence ) 
Unsullied Beauty ; sound unbroken Youth, 
Patient of labour, with a little pleas'd ; 
Health ever blooming; unambitious Toil; 
Calm Contemplation, and poetic Ease. 

Let others brave the flood in quest of gain, 
And beat, for joyless months, the gloomy wave. 
Let such as deem it glory to destroy, 
Rush into blood, the sack of cities seek; 
Unpierc'd, exulting in the widow's wail, 
The virgin's shriek, and infant's trembling cry. 
Let some, far distant from their native soil, 
Urg'd or by want or harden'd avarice, 
Find other lands beneath another sun. 
Let this through cities Avork his eager way, 
By legal outrage and establish'd guile, 
The social sense extinct ; and that ferment 
Mad into tumult the seditious herd, 
Or melt them down to slavery. Let these 
Insnare the wretched in the toils of law, 
Fomenting discord, and perplexing right, 
An iron race ! and those fairer of front, 
15 



170 AUTUMN. 

But equal inhumanity, in court3, 
Delusive pomp and dark cabals, delight ; 
Wreathe the deep bow, diffuse the lying smile, 
And tread the weary labyrinth of state. 
While he, from all the stormy passions free 
That restless men involve, hears, and but hears, 
At distance safe, the human tempest roar, 
"Wrapt close in conscious peace. The fall of kings, 
The rage of nations, and the crush of states, 
Move not the man, who, from the world escap'd, 
In still retreats, and flowery solitudes, 
To Nature's voice attends, from month to month, 
And day to day, through the revolving year; 
Admiring, sees her in her every shape ; 
Feels all her sweet emotions at his heart ; 
Takes what she liberal gives, nor thinks of more. 
He, when young Spring protrudes the bursting gems, 
Marks the first bud, and sucks the healthful gale 
Into his freshened eoul ; her genial hours 
He full enjoys ; and not a beauty blows, 
And not an opening blossom breathes in vain. 
In Summer he, beneath the living shade, 
Such as o'er frigid Tempe wont to wave, 
Or Hemus cool, reads what the Muse, of these. 
Perhaps, has in immortal numbers sung; 
Or what she dictates writes . and, oft an eye 
Shot round, rejoices in the vigorous year. 
When Autumn's yellow lustre gilds the world, 
And tempts the sickled swain into the field, 



AUTUMN. 171 

Seiz'd by the general joy, his heart distends 
With gentle throes ; and, through the tepid gleams 
Deep musing, then he best exe ts his song. 
Ev'n Winter wild to him is full of bliss. 
The mighty tempest, and the hoary waste, 
Abrupt, and deep, stretch'd o'er the buried earth, 
Awake to solemn thought. At night the skies, 
Disclos'd, and kindled, by refining frost, 
Pour every lustre on th' exalted eye. 
A friend, a book, the stealing hours secure, 
And mark them down for wisdom. With swift wing 
O'er land and sea imagination roams ; 
Or truth, divinely breaking on his mind, 
Elates his being, and unfolds his powers ; 
Or in his breast heroic virtue burns. 
The touch of kindred too and love he feels ; 
The modest eye, whose beams on his alone 
Ecstatic shine j the little strong embrace 
Of prattling children, twin'd around his neck, 
And emulous to please him, calling forth 
The fond parental soul. Nor purpose gay, 
Amusement, dance, or song, he sternly scorns ; 
For happiness and true philosophy 
Are of the social still, and smiling kind. 
This is the life which those who fret in guilt, 
And guilty cities, never knew; the life, 
Led by primeval ages, 'incorrupt, 
When Angels dwelt, and God himself, with Man! 
Oh, Nature ! all-sufficient ! over all ! 



172 AUTUMN. 

Enrich me with the knowledge of thy works! 

Snatch me to heaven ; thy rolling wonders there, 

World beyond world, in infinite extent, 

Profusely scattered o'er th' blue immense, 

Show me ; their motions, periods, and their laws, 

Give me to scan ; through the disclosing deep 

Light my blind way ; the mineral strata there ; 

Thrust, blooming, thence the vegetable world ; 

O'er that the rising system, more complex, 

Of animals ; and higher still, the mind, 

The varied scene of quick-compounded thought, 

And where the mixing passions endless shift ; 

These ever open to my ravish 'd eye ; 

A search, the flight of time can ne'er exhaust ! 

But if to that unequal ; if the blood, 

In sluggish streams about my heart, forbid 

That best ambition ; under closing shades, 

Inglorious, lay me by the lowly brook, 

And whisper to my dreams. From Thee besfin, 

Dwell all on Thee, with Thee conclude my song^ 

And let me never, never stray from Thee ! 



/ 




= and down he sinks 



Beneath the shelter of the shapeless drift, 
Thinking o'er all the bitterness of death. 



Daniel Fanshaw, Printer. 



WINTER. 



15* 






The subject proposed. Address to the Earl of Wilmington. 
First approach of Winter According to the natu al course of 
the season, variou- storms described Rain. Wind. Snow. 
The driving of the snows : a man perishing among them ; 
whence reflections on the wants and miseries of human life. 
The wolves descending from the Alps and Apennines. A win- 
ter evening described , as spent by philosophers ; by the coun- 
try people ; in the city. Frost A view of Winter within the 
polar circle. A thaw the whole concluding with moral re- 
jections on a future state. 



WINTER, 



See, Winter comes, to rule the varied year, 
Sullen and sad, with all his rising train ; 
Vapours, and Clouds, and Storms. Be these my 
These ! that exalt the soul to solemn thought, [theme, 
And heavenly musing. Welcome, kindred glooms. 
Congenial horrors, hail ! with frequent foot, 
Pleas'd have I, in my cheerful morn of life, 
When nurs'd by careless Solitude I liv'd, 
And sung of Nature with unceasing joy, 
Pleas'd have I wander'd through your rough domain. 
Trod the pure virgin-snows, myself as pure ; 
Heard the winds roar, and the big torrent burst ; 
Or seen the deep-fermenting tempest brew'd, 
In the grim evening sky. Thus pass'd the time, 
Till through the lucid chambers of the south 
Look'd out the joyous Spring, look'd out, and smiPd. 

To thee, the patron of her first essay, 
The Muse, Wilmington ! renews her song. 
Since has she rounded the revolving year : 
Skimm'd the gay Spring ; on eagle-pinions borne, 
Attempted through the Summer-blaze to rise ; 
Then swept o'er Autumn with the shadowy gale ; 
And now among the wintry clouds again, 



176 WINTER. 

Roll'd in the doubling storm, she tries to soap; 
To swell her note with all the rushing winds ; 
To suit her sounding cadence to the floods ; 
As is her theme, her numbers wildly great : 
Thrice happy could she fill thy judging ear 
With bold description, and with manly thought. 
Nor art thou skill'd in awful schemes alone, 
And how to make a mighty people thrive: 
But equal goodness, sound integrity, 
A firm unshaken uncorrupted soul 
Amid a sliding age, and burning strong, 
Not vainly blazing, for thy country's weal, 
A steady spirit regularly free ; 
These, each exalting each, the statesman light 
Into the patriot ; these, the public hope 
And eye to thee converting, bid the Muse 
Record what envy dares not flattery call. 

Now when the cheerless empire of the sky 
To Capricorn the Centaur Archer yields, 
And fierce Aquarius, stains th' inverted year; 
Hung o'er the furthest verge of heaven, the sun 
Scarce spreads through ether the dejected day. 
Faint are his gleams, and ineffectual shoot 
His struggling rays, in horizontal lines, 
Through the thick air; as cloth'd in cloudy storm, 
Weak, wan, and broad, he skirts the southern sky^ 
And, soon-descending, to the long dark night, 
Wide -shading all, the prostrate world resigns. 
Nor is the night unwish'd ; while vital heat, 



WINTER. 177 

Light, life, and joy, the dubious day forsake. 
Meantime, in sable cincture, shadows vast, 
Deep-ting'd and damp, and congregated clouds, 
And all the vapoury turbulence of heaven, 
Involve the face of things. Thus Winter falls, 
A heavy gloom oppressive o'er the world, 
Through Nature shedding influence malign, 
And rouses up the seeds of dark disease. 
The soul of man dies in him, loathing life, 
And black with more than melancholy views. 
The cattle droop ; and o'er the furrow'd land, 
Fresh from the plough, the dun discolour'd flocks, 
Untended spreading, crop the wholesome root. 
Along the woods, along the moorish fens, 
Sighs the sad Genius of the coming slorm ; 
And up among the loose disjointed cliffs, 
And fractur'd mountains wild, the brawling brook 
And cave, presageful, send a hollow moan, 
Resounding long in listening Fancy's ear. 

Then comes the father of the tempest forth, 
Wrapt in black glooms. First joyless rains obscure 
Drive through the mingling skies with vapour foul \ 
Dash on the mountain's brow, and shake the woods, 
That grumbling wave below. Th 1 unsightly plain 
Lies a brown deluge ; as the low-bent clouds 
Pour flood on flood, yet unexhausted still 
Combine, and deepening into night, shut up 
The day's fair face. The wanderers of heaven, 
Each to his home, retire ; save those that love 



178 WINTER. 

To take their pastime in the troubled air, 

Or skimming flutter round the dimply pool. 

The cattle from th' untasted fields return, 

And ask, with meaning low, their wonted stalls, 

Or ruminate in the contiguous shade. 

Thither the household feathery people crowd, 

The crested cock, with aJl his female train, 

Pensive, and dripping; while the cottage hind 

Hangs o'er th' enlivening blaze, and taleful there 

Recounts his simple frolic : much he talks, 

And much he laughs, nor recks the storm that blows 

Without, and rattles on his humble roof. 

Wide o'er the brim, with many a torrent swell'd, 
And the mix'd ruin of its banks o'erspread, 
At last the rous'd-up river pours along : 
Resistless, roaring, dreadful, down it comes, 
From the rude mountain, and the mossy wild, 
Tumbling through rocks abrupt, and sounding far; 
Then o'er the sanded valley floating spreads, 
Calm, sluggish, silent ; till again, constraint 
Between two meeting bills, it bursts away, 
Where rocks and woods o'erhang the turbid stream y 
There gathering triple force, rapid, and deep, 
It boils, and wheels, and foams, and thunders through.. 

Nature ! great parent ! whose unceasing hand 
Rolls round the Seasons of the changeful year, 
How mighty, how majestic, are thy works ! 
With what a pleasing dread they swell the soult 
That sees astonish'd ! and astonish'd sings ! 



WINTER. 179 

Ye too, ye winds ! that now begin to blow 

With boisterous sweep, I raise my voice to you. 

Where are your stores, ye powerful beings ! say r 

Where your aerial magazines reserv'd, 

To swell the brooding terrors of the storm ? 

In what far-distant region of the sky, 

Hush'd in deep silence, sleep ye when 'tis calm? 

When from the pallid sky the sun descends, 
With many a spot, that o'er his glaring orb 
Uncertain wanders, stain'd ; red fiery streaks 
Begin to flush around. The reeling clouds 
Stagger with dizzy poise, as doubting yet 
Which master to obey : while rising slow, 
Blank, in the leadeu-colour'd east, the mooa 
Wears a wan circle round her blunted horns. 
Seen through the turbid fluctuating air, 
The stars obtuse emit a shiver'd ray ; 
Or frequent seems to shoot athwart the gloom, 
And long behind them trail the whitening blaze. 
Snatcn'd in short eddies, plays the whither'd leaf; 
And on the flood the dancing feather floats. 
With broaden'd nostrils to the sky up-turn'd, 
' The conscious heifer snuffs the stormy gale. 
Ev'n as the matron, at her nightly task, 
'With pensive labour draws the flaxen thread, 
The wasted taper and the crackling flame 
iForetell the blast. But chief the plumy race, 
The tenants of the sky, its changes -peak. 
! Retiring from the downs, where all day long 



180 WINTER. 

They pick'd their scanty fare, a blackening train 
Of clamorous rooks thick urge their weary flight, 
And seek the closing shelter of the grove ; 
Assiduous, in his bower, the wailing owl 
Plies his sad song. The cormorant on high 
Wheels from the deep, and screams along the land. 
Loud shrieks the soaring hern ; and with wild wing 
The circling sea-fowl cleave the flaky clouds. 
Ocean, unequal press'd, with broken tide 
And blind commotion heaves ; while from the shore, 
Eat into caverns by the restless wave, 
And forest-rustling mountain, comes a voice, 
That solemn sounding bids the world prepare. 
Then issues forth the storm with sudden burst, 
And hurls the whole precipitated air 
Down in a torrent. On the passive main 
Descends the ethereal force, and with strong gust 
Turns from its bottom the discolour'd deep. 
Through the black night that sits immense around, 
Lash'd into foam, the fierce conflicting brine 
Seems o'er a thousand raging waves to burn : 
Meantime the mountain-billows, to the clouds 
In dreadful tumult swell'd, surge above surge, 
Burst into chaos with tremendous roar, 
And anchor'd navies from their stations drive, 
Wild as the winds across the howling waste 
Of mighty waters : now th' inflated wave 
Straining they scale, and now impetuous shoot 
Into the secret chambers of the deep, 



WINTER. 181 

The wintry Baltic thundering o'er their head. 
Emerging thence again, before the breath 
Of full-exerted heaven they wing their course, 
And dart on distant coasts ; if some sharp rock, 
Or shoal insidious, break not their career, 
And in loose fragments fling them floating round. 

Nor less at hand theloosen'd tempest reigns. 
The mountain thunders; and its sturdy sons 
Stoop to the bottom of the rocks they shade. 
Lone on the midnight steep, and all aghast, 
The dark way-faring stranger breathless toils, 
And, often falling, climbs against the blast. 
Low waves the rooted forest, vex'd, and sheds 
What of its tarnish 'd honours yet remain ; 
Dash'd down, and scatter'd, by the tearing wind's 
Assiduous fury, its gigantic limbs. 
Thus struggling through the dissipated grove, 
The whirling tempest raves along the plain ; 
And on the cottage thatch'd, or lordly roof, 
Keen-fastening, shakes them to the solid base. 
Sleep, frighted flies ; and round the rocking dome, 
For entrance eager, howls the savage blast. 
Then too, they say, through all the burden'd air, 
Long groans are heard, shrill sounds, and distant 
That, utter'd by the Demon of the night, [sighs, 
Warn the devoted wretch of woe and death. 

Huge uproar lords it wide. The clouds commix'd 
With stars swift gliding sweep along the sky. 
All nature reels. Till Nature's King, who oft 
16 




182 WINTER. 

Amid tempestuous darkness dwells alone, 
And on the wings of the careering wind 
Walks dreadfully serene, commands a calm ; 
Then straight, air, sea, and earth, are hush'd at once 

As yet 'tis midnight deep. The weary clouds, 
Slow-meeting, mingle into solid gloom. 
Wow, while the drowsy world lies lost in sleep, 
Let me associate with the serious Night, 
And Contemplation, her sedate compeer; 
Let me shake off th' intrusive cares of day, 
And lay the meddling senses all aside. 

Where now, ye lying vanities of life ! 
Ye ever-tempting, ever-cheating train ! 
Where are you now? and what is your amount f 
Vexation, disappointment, and remorse : 
Sad, sickening thought! and yet, deluded man, 
A scene of crude disjointed visions past, 
And broken slumbers, rises still resolv'd, 
With new-flush'd hopes, to run the giddy round. 

Father of light and life ! thou Good Supreme ! 
O teach me what is good! teach me Thyself! 
Save me from folly, vanity, and vice, 
From every low pursuit ! and feed my soul 
With knowledge, conscious peace, and virtue pure; 
Sacred, substantial, never-fading bliss ! 

The keener tempests rise : and fuming dun 
From all the livid east, or piercing north, 
Thick clouds ascend; in whose capacious womb 
A vapoury deluge lies, to snow congeal'd, 



WINTER. 183 

Heavy they roll their fleecy world alone: ; 
And the sky saddens with the gather'd storm. 
Through the hush'd air the whitening shower de- 
At first thin wavering; till at last the flakes [scends, 
Fall broad, and wide, and fast, dimming the day 
With a continual flow The cherish'd fields 
Put on their winter-robe of purest white. 
'Tis brightness all ; save where the new snow melts 
Along the mazy current. Low t the woods 
Bow their hoar head; and ere the languid sun 
Faint from the west emits his evening ray, 
Earth's universal face, deep hid, and chill, 
Is one wild dazzling waste, that buries wide 
The works of man. Drooping, the labourer-ox 
Stands cover'd o'er with snow, and then demands 
The fruit of all his toil. The fowls of heaven, 
Tam'd by the cruel season, crowd around 
The winnowing store, and claim the little boon 
Which Providence assigns them One alone, 
The red-breast, sacred to the household gods, 
Wisely regardful of th' embroiling sky, 
In joyful fields and thorny* thickets, leaves 
His shivering mates, and pays to trusted man 
His annual visit Half-afraid, he first 
Against the window beats; then, brisk, alights 
On the warm hearth ; then, hopping o'er the floor, 
Eyes all the smiling family askance, 
And pecks, and starts, and wonders where he is j 
Till more familiar grown, the table-crumbs 



184 WINTER. 

Attract his slender feet. The foodless wilds 
Pour forth their brown inhabitants. The hare,. 
Though timorous of heart, and hard beset 
By death in various forms, dark snares and dogs, 
And more unpitying men, the garden seeks, 
Urg'd on by fearless want. The bleating kind 
Eye the bleak heaven, and next the glistening earth,. 
With looks of dumb despair; then, sad dispers'd, 
Dig for the wither'd herb through heaps of snow. 

]Now, shepherds, to your charge be kind, 
Bafle the raging year, and fill their pens 
With food at will ; lodge them below the storm, 
Ajid watch them strict : for from the bellowing east,. 
In this dire season, oft the whirlwind's wing 
Sweeps up the burden of whole wiutry plains 
At one wide waft, and o'er the hapless flocks, 
Hid in the hollow of two neighbouring hills, 
The billowy tempest whelms; till, upward urg'd, 
The valley to a shining mountain swells, 
Tipt with a wreath high-curling in the sky. 

As thus the snows arise ; and foul, and fierce^ 
All Winter drives along the darken'd air; 
In his own loose-revolving fields, the swain 
Disaster' d stands ; sees other hills ascend, 
Of unknown joyless brow ; and other scenes, 
Of horrid prospect, shag the trackless plain : 
Nor finds the river, nor the forest, hid 
Beneath the formless wild ; but wanders on 
From hill to dale, still more and more astray ; 



WINTER. 185 

Impatient flouncing through the drifted heaps, 
Stung with the thoughts of home ; the thoughts of 
Rush on his nerves, and call their vigour forth [home 
In many a vain attempt. How sinks his soul ! 
What black despair, what horror fills his heart ! 
When for the dusky spot, which fancy feign'd 
His tufted cottage rising through the snow, 
He meets the roughness of the middle waste, 
Far from the track, and bless'd abode of man ! 
While round him night resistless closes fast, 
And ever} tempest, howling o'er his head, 
Renders the savage wilderness more wild. 
Then throng the busy shapes into his mind 
Of cover'd pits, unfathomably deep, 
A dire descent ! beyond the power of frost; 
Of faithless bogs ; of precipices huge, 
Smooth'd up with snow ; and, what is land, un- 
What water, of the still unfrozen spring, [known, 
In the loose marsh or solitary lake, 
Where the fresh fountain from the bottom boils. 
These check his fearful steps ; and down he sinks 
Beneath the shelter of the shapeless drift, 
Thinking o'er all the bitterness of death, 
Mix'd with the tender anguish Nature shoots 
Through the wrung bosom of the dying man, 
His wife, his children, and his friends unseen. 
In vain for him th' officious wife prepares 
The fire fair-blazing, and the vestment warm ; 
In vain his little children peeping out 
16* 



186 WINTER. 

Into the mingling storm, demand their sire, 
With tears of artless innocence. Alas ! 
Nor wife, nor children, more shall he behold, 
Nor friends, nor sacred home. On every nerve 
The deadly Winter seizes ; shuts up sense; 
And, o'er his inmost vitals creeping cold, 
Lays him along the snows, a stifFen'd corse, 
Stretch'd out, and bleaching in the northern blast. 

Ah ! little think the gay licentious proud, 
Whom pleasure, power, and affluence surround \ 
They who their thoughtless hours in giddy mirth, 
And wanton, often cruel, riot waste ; 
Ah ! little think they, while they dance along, 
How many feel, this very moment, death r 
And all the sad variety of pain. 
How many sink in the devouring flood, 
Or more devouring flame. How many bleed, 
By shameful variance betwixt man and man. 
How in any pine in want, and dungeon glooms ; 
Shut from the common air, and common use 
Of their own limbs. How many drink the cup 
Of baleful grief, or eat the bitter bread 
Of misery. Sore pierc'd by wintry winds, 
How many shrink into the sordid hut 
Of cheerless poverty. How many shake 
With all the fiercer tortures of the mind, 
Unbounded passion, madness, guilt, remorse ; 
Whence tumbled headlong from the height of life 
They furnish matter for the tragic Muse. 



WINTER. 187 

Ev'n in the vale, where Wisdom loves to dwell, 
With friendship, peace, and contemplation join'd, 
How many, rack'd with honest passions, droop 
In deep retir'd distress. How many stand 
Around the death-bed of their dearest friends, 
And point the parting anguish. Thought fond Man 
Of these, and all the thousand nameless ills 
That one incessant struggle render life 
One scene of toil, of suffering, and of fate, 
Vice in his high career would stand appall'd, 
And heedless rambling Impulse learn to think ; 
The conscious heart of Charity would warm, 
And her wide wish Benevolence dilate ; 
The social tear would rise, the social sigh ; 
And into clear perfection, gradual bliss, 
Refining still, the social passions work. 

And here can I forget the generous band * 
Who, touch'd with human woe, redressive search'd 
Into the horrors of the gloomy jail ? 
Unpitied, and unheard, where misery moans ; 
Where sickness pines ; where thirst and hunger burn, 
And poor misfortune feels the lash of vice. 
While in the land of Liberty, the land 
Whose every street and public meeting glow 
With open freedom, little tyrants rag'd ; 
Snatch'd the lean morsel from the starving mouth ; 
Tore from cold wintry limbs the tatter'd weed ; 

* The Jail Committee, in the year 1729. 



188 WINTER. 

Ev'n robb'd them of the last of comforts, sleep ; 
The free-born Briton to the dungeon chain'd, 
Or, as the lust of cruelty prevail'd. 
At pleasure mark'd him with inglorious stripes ; 
And crush'd out lives, by secret barbarous ways, 
That for their country would have toii'd, or bled. 
O great design ! if executed well, 
With patient care, and wisdom-temper'd zeal. 
Ye sons of Mercy ! yet resume the search \ 
Drag forth the legal monsters into light, 
Wrench from their hands oppression's iron rod, 
And bid the cruel feel the pains they give. 
Much still untouch'd remains ; in this rank age, 
Much is the patriot's weeding hand required. 
The toils of law, (what dark insidious men 
Have cumbrous added to perplex the truth, 
And lengthen simple justice into trade) 
How glorious were the day ! that saw these broke* 
And every man within the reach of right. 

By wintry famine rous'd, from all the tract 
Of horrid mountains which the shining Alps, 
And wavy Apennine, and Pyrenees, 
Branch out stupendous into distant lands ; 
Cruel as death, and hungry as the grave 1 
Burning for bio d ! bony, and gaunt, and grim ! 
Assemblingwol.es in raging troops descend; 
And, pouring o'er the country, bear along, 
Keen as the north-wind sweeps the glossy snow. 
All is their prize. They fasten on the steed, 



WINTER. 189 

Press him to earth, and pierce his mighty heart. 
Nor can the bull his awful front defend, 
Or shake the murdering savages away. 
Rapacious, at the mother's throat they fly, 
-And tear the screaming infant from her breast. 
The godlike face of man avails him naught. 
Ev'n beauty, force divine ! at whose bright glance 
The generous lion stands in soften'd gaze, 
Here bleeds, a hapless undistinguish'd prey. 
But if, appriz'd of the severe attack, 
The country be shut up, lur'd by the scent, 
On church-yards drear (inhuman to relate !) 
The disappointed prowlers fall, and dig 
The shrouded body from the grave ; o'er which, 
Mix'd with foul shades, and frighted ghosts, they 

Amongthose hilly regions, where, embrac'd [howl. 
In peaceful vales, the happy Grisons dwell; 
Oft, rushing sudden from the loaded cliffs, 
Mountains of snow their gathering terrors roll. 
From steep to steep, loud-thundering down they 
A wintry waste in dire commotion all ; [come, 

And herds, and flocks, and travellers and swains, 
And sometimes whole brigades of marching troops, 
Or hamlets sleeping in the dead of night, 
Are deep beneath the smothering ruin whelm'd. 

Now, all amid the rigours of the year, 
In the wild depth of Winter, while without 
The ceaseless winds blow ice, be my retreat, 
Between the groaning forest and the shore 



190 WINTER. 

Beat by the boundless multitude of waves, 
A rural, shelter'd, solitary, scene; 
Where ruddy fire and beaming tapers join 
To cheer the gloom. There studious let me sit, 
And hold high converse with the mighty Dead ; 
Sages of ancient time, as gods rever'd, 
As gods beneficent, who bless'd mankind 
With arts, with arms, and humaniz'd a world. 
Rous'd at th T inspiring thought, I throw aside 
The long-liv'd volume; and, deep-musing, hatf 
The sacred shades, that slowly-rising pass 
Before my wondering eyes. First Socrates, 
Who, firmly good in a corrupted state, 
Against the rage of tyrants single stood, 
Invincible! calm Reason's holy law, 
That Voice of Goo within th' attentive mind, 
Obeying, fearless, or in life, or death : 
Great moral teacher! Wisest of mankind! 
Solon the next, who built his common-weal 
On equity's wide base ; by tender laws 
A lively people curbing, yet undamp'd 
Preserving still that quick peculiar fire, 
Whence in the laureTd field of finer arts, 
And of bold freedom, they unequall'd shone, 
The pride of smiling Greece, and human kind. 
Lycurgus then, who bow'd beneath the force 
Of strictest discipline, severely wise, 
All human passions. Following him I see, 
As at Thermopylae he glorious fell, 



WINTER. 191 

The firm devoted Chief* who prov'd by deeds 
-The hardest lesson which the other taught. 
Then Aristides lifts his honest front; 
Spotless of heart, to whom th' unflattering voice 
Of freedom gave the noblest name of Just \ 
In pure majestic poverty rever'd ; 
Who, ev'n his glory to his country's weal 
Submitting, swelPd a haughty Rival 'st fame. 
Rear'd by his care, of softer ray appears 
Cimon sweet-soul'd; whose genius, rising strong, 
Shook off the load of young debauch ; abroad 
The scourge of Persian pride, at home the friend 
Of every worth and every splendid art ; 
Modest, and simple, in the pomp of wealth. 
Then the last worthies of declining Greece, 
Late call'd to glory, in unequal times, 
Pensive appear. The fair Corinthian boast, 
Timoleon, happy temper ! mild, and firm, 
Who wept the brother while the tyrant bled. 
And, equal to 'he best, the Theban Pair,t 
Whose virtues, in heroic concord join'd, 
Their country rais'd to freedom, empire, fame. 
He too, with whom Athenian honour sunk,, 
And left a mass of sordid lees behind, 
Phocion the Good ; in public life severe, 
To virtue still inexorably firm ; 
But when, beneath his low 7 illustrious roof, 

* Lconidas. 1" Themistocle.s, 

t Peiopidas and Epamiuondas. 



192 WINTER. 

Sweet peace and happy wisdom smooth'd his brow, 
INot friendship softer was, nor love more kind. 
And he, the last of old Lycurgus' sons, 
The generous victim to that vain attempt, 
To save a rotten state, Agis, who saw 
Ev'n Sparta's self to servile avarice sunk. 
The two Achaian heroes close the train : 
Aratus, who awhile relum'd the soul 
Of fondly-lingering liberty in Greece ; 
And he her darling as her latest hope, 
The gallant Philopcemen; who to arms 
Turn'd the luxurious pomp he could not cure j 
Or toiling in his farm, a simple swain ; 
Or, bold and skilful, thundering in the field. 
Of rougher front, a mighty people come ! 
A race of heroes ! in those virtuous times 
Which knew no stain, save that with partial flame 
Their dearest countiy they too fondly lov'd : 
Her better Founder first, the light of Rome, 
Numa, who soften'd her rapacious sons : 
Servius the king, who laid the solid base 
On which o'er earth the vast republic spread. 
Then the great consuls venerable rise. 
The public Father* who the private quell'd, 
As on the dread tribunal sternly sad. 
He, whom his thankless country could not lose, 
Camillus, only vengeful to her foes. 
Fabricius. scorner of all-conquering gold; 

* Marcus Junius Brutus. 



WINTER. 193 

And Cincinnatus, awful from the plough. 
Thy willing victim/ Carthage, bursting loose 
From all that pleading Nature could oppose, 
From a whole city's tears, by rigid faith 
Imperious call'd, and honour's dire command. 
Scipio, the gentle chief, humanely brave, 
Who soon the race of spotless glory ran, 
And, warm in youth, to the poetic shade 
With Friendship and Philosophy retir'd. 
Tully, whose powerful eloquence awhile 
Restrain'd the rapid fate of rushing Rome. 
Unconquer'd Cato, virtuous in extreme : 
And thou, unhappy Brutus, kind of heart, 
Whose steady arm, by awful virtue urg'd, 
Lifted the Roman steel against thy friend. 
Thousands besides the tribute of a verse 
Demand ; but who can count the stars of heaven? 
Who sing their influence on this lower world ? 
Behold, who yonder comes ! in sober state, 
Fair, mild, and strong, as is a vernal sun : 
7 Tis Phoebus' self, or else the Mantuan swain I 
Great Homer too appears, of daring wing, 
Parent of song ! and equal by his side, 
The British Muse : join'd hand in hand they walk, 
Darkling, full up the middle steep to fame, 
Nor absent are those shades, whose skilful touch 
Pathetic drew th' impassion'd heart, and charm'd 

* Regulus. 

17 



194 WINTER. 

Transported Athens with the moral scene ; 

Nor those who, tuneful, wak'd th' enchanting lyre. 

First of your kind ! society divine ! 
Still visit thus my nights, for you reserv'd, 
And mount my soaring soul to thoughts like yours. 
Silence, thou lonely power ! the door be thine ; 
See on the hallow'd hour that none intrude, 
Save a few chosen friends, who sometimes deign 
To bless my humble roof, with sense refin'd, 
Learning digested well, exalted faith, 
Unstudied wit, and humour ever gay. 
Or from the Muses' hill will Pope descend, 
To raise the sacred hour, to bid it smile, 
And with the social spirit warm the heart ? 
For though not sweeter his own Homer sings, 
Yet is his life the more endearing song. [pride. 

Where art thou, Hammond ? thou, the darling 
The friend and lover of the tuneful throng! 
Ah why, dear youth, in all the blooming prime 
Of vernal genius, where disclosing fast 
Each active worth, each manly virtue lay, 
Why wert thou ravish'd from our hope so soon ? 
What now avails that noble thirst of fame, 
Which stung thy fervent breast? that treasur'd store 
Of knowledge, early gain'd ? that eager zeal 
To serve thy country, glowing in the band 
Of youthful patriots, who sustain her name ; 
What now, alas ! that life-diffusing charm 
Of sprightly wit ? that rapture for the Muse> 



WINTER. 195 

That heart of friendship, arid that soul of joy, 
Which bade with softest light thy virtue's smile ? 
Ah ! only show'd, to check our fond pursuits, 
And teach our humbled hopes that life is vain ! 

Thus in some deep retirement would I pass 
The Winter glooms, with friends of pliant soul,. 
Or blithe, or solemn, as the theme inspir'd : 
With them would search, if Nature's boundless frame 
Was call'd, late-rising from the void of night, 
Or sprung eternal from th' Eternal Mind ; 
Its life, its laws, its progress, and its end. 
Hence larger prospects of the beauteous whole 
Would, gradual, open on our opening minds; 
And each diffusive harmony unite 
In full perfection, to th' astonish'd eye. 
Then would we try to scan the moral world, 
Which, though to us it seems embroil'd, moves on 
In higher order; fitted and impell'd 
By Wisdom's finest hand, and issuing all 
In general good. The sage historic Muse 
Should next conduct us through the deeps of time : 
Show us how empire grew, declin'd, and fell, 
In scatter'd states ; what makes the nations smile, 
Improves their soil, and gives them double suns ; 
And why they pine beneath the brightest skies, 
In Nature's richest lap. As thus we talk'd, 
Our hearts would burn within us, would inhale 
That portion of divinity, that ray 
Of purest heaven, which lights the public soul 



196 WINTER. 

Of patriots and of heroes. But if doom'd, 

In powerless humble fortune, to repress 

These ardent risings of the kindling soul; 

Then, even superior to ambition, we 

Would learn the private virtues ; how to glide 

Thro' shades and plains, along the smoothest stream 

Of rural life : or snatch'd away by hope, 

Through the dim spaces of futurity, 

"With earnest eye anticipate those scenes 

Of happiness and wonder: where the mind, 

In endless growth and infinite ascent, 

Rises from state to state, and world to world. 

But when with these the serious thought is foil'd, 

We, shifting for relief, would play the shapes 

Of frolic fancy ; and incessant form 

Those rapid pictures, that assembled train 

Of fleet ideas, never join'd before, 

Whence lively Wit excites to gay surprise; 

Or folly-painting Humour, grave himself, 

Calls Laughter forth, deep-shaking every nerve. 

Meantime the village rouses up the fire ; 
While well attested, and as well believ'd, 
Heard solemn, goes the goblin story round; 
Till superstitious horror creeps o'er all. 
Or, frequent in the sounding hall, they wake 
The rural gambol. Rustic mirth goes round ; 
The simple joke that takes the shepherd's heart, 
Easily pleas'd ; the long loud laugh, sincere; 
The kiss, snatch'd hasty from the side-long maid. 



WINTER. 197 

On purpose guardless, or pretending sleep : 

The leap, the slap, the haul ; and, shook to notes 

Of native music,- the respondent dance. 

Thus jocund fleets with them the winter-night. 

The city swarms intense. The public haunt, 
Full of each theme, and warm with mix'd discourse. 
Hums indistinct. The sons of riot flow 
Down the loose stream of false enchanted joy, 
To swift destruction. On the rankled soul 
The gaming fury falls ; and in one gulf 
Of total ruin, honour, virtue, peace, 
Friends, families, and fortune, headlong sink. 
Up springs the dance along the lighted dome, 
Mix'd, and evolv'd, a thousand sprightly ways. 
The glittering court effuses every pomp ; 
The circle deepens : beam'd from gaudy robes, 
Tapers, and sparkling gems, and radiant eyes, 
A soft effulgence o'er the palace waves: 
While a gay insect in his summer shine, 
The fop, light-fluttering, spreads his mealy wings. 

Dread o'er the scene the ghost of Hamlet stalks ; 
Othello rages ; poor Monimia mourns ; 
And Belvidera pours her soul in love. 
Terror alarms the breast ; the comely tear 
Steals o'er the cheek : or else the Comic Muse 
Holds to the world a picture of itself, 
And raises sly the fair impartial laugh. 
Sometimes she lifts her strain, and paints the scenes 
Of beauteous life; whate'er can deck mankind, 
17* 



198 Winter. 

Or charm the heart, in generous Bevil* show'd. 

O Thou, whose wisdom, solid, yet refin'd, 
Whose patriot-virtues, and consummate skill 
To touch the finer springs that move the world, 
Join'd to whate'er the Graces can bestow. 
And all Apollo's animating fire, 
Give thee, with pleasing dignity, to shine 
At once the guardian, ornament, and joy, 
Of polish'd life ; permit the rural Muse, 
O Chesterfield, to grace with thee her song! 
Ere to the shades again she humbly flies, 
Indulge her fond ambition, in thy train, 
(For every Muse has in thy train a place) 
To mark thy various full-accomplish'd mind : 
To mark that spirit, which, with British scorn, 
Rejects th' allurements of corrupted power; 
That elegant politeness, which excels, 
Ev'n in the judgment of presumptuous France* 
The boasted manners of her shining court; 
That wit, the vivid energy of sense, 
The truth of Nature, which with Attic point 
And kind well-temper'd satire, smoothly keen, 
Steals through the soul, and without pain corrects. 
Or rising thence with yet a brighter flame, 
O let me hail thee on some glorious day, 
When to the listening senate, ardent, crowd 
Britannia's sons to hear her pleaded cause. 

* A character in The Conscious Lovers, written by Sir R' 
Steele. 



WINTER. 199 

Then dress'd by thee, more amiably fair, 

Truth the soft robe of mild persuasion wears : 

Thou to assenting reason giv'st again 

Her own enlighten'd thoughts ; call'd from the heart, 

Th' obedient passions on thy voice attend ; 

And ev'n reluctant party feels awhile 

Thy gracious power : as through the varied maze 

Of eloquence, now smooth, now quick, now strong, 

Profound, and clear, you roll the copious flood. 

To thy lov'd haunt return, my happy Muse : 
For now, behold the joyous winter days, 
Frosty, succeed ; and through the blue serene, 
For sight too fine, th' ethereal nitre flies ; 
Killing infectious damps, and the spent air 
Storing afresh with elemental life. 
Close crowds the shining atmosphere ; and binds 
Our strengthen'd bodies in its cold embrace, 
Constringent ; feeds, and animates our blood ; 
Refines our spirits, through the new-strung nerves, 
In swifter sallies darting to the brain ; 
Where sits the soul, intense, collected, cool, 
Bright as the skies, and as the season keen. 
All Nature feels the renovating force 
Of Winter, only to the thoughtless eye 
In ruin seen. The frost-concocted glebe 
Draws in abundant vegetable soul, 
And gathers vigour for the coming year. 
A stronger glow sits on the lively cheek 
Of ruddy fire : and luculent along 



200 WINTER. 

The purer rivers flow ; their sullen deeps, 
Transparent, open to the shepherd's gaze, 
And murmur hoarser at the fixing frost. 

What art thou, frost? and whence are thy keen 
Deriv'd, thou secret all-invading power, [stores 
Whom even th' illusive fluid cannot fly ? 
Is not thy potent energy, unseen, 
Myriads of little salts, or hook'd, or shap'd 
Like double wedges, and diffus'd immense 
Through water, earth, and ether ! hence at eve, 
Steam'd eager from the red horizon round, 
With the fierce rage of Winter deep sufFus'd, 
An icy gale, oft shifting, o'er the pool 
Breathes a blue film, and in its mid career 
Arrests the bickering stream. The loosen'dice, 
Let down the flood, and half dissolv'd by day, 
Rustles no more ; but to the sedgy bank 
Fast grows, or gathers round the pointed stone, 
A crystal pavement, by the breath of heaven 
Cemented firm ; till, seiz'd from shore to shore, 
The whole imprison'd river growls below. 
Loud rings the frozen earth, and hard reflects 
A double noise ; while, at his evening watch, 
The village dog deters the nightly thief; 
The heifer lows ; the distant waterfall 
Swells in the breeze ; and, with the hasty tread 
Of traveller, the hollow-sounding plain 
Shakes from afar. The full ethereal round, 
Infinite worlds disclosing to the view, 



WINTER. 201 

Shines out intensely keen ; and, all one cope 
Of starry glitter, glows from pole to pole. 
From pole to pole the rigid influence falls, 
Through the still night, incessant, heavy, strong. 
And seizes Nature fast. It freezes on; 
Till morn, late rising o'er the drooping world, 
Lifts her pale eye unjoyous. Then appears 
The various labour of the silent night: 
Prone from the dripping eave, and dumb cascade* 
Whose idle torrents only seem to roar, 
The pendent icicle ; the frost-work fair, 
Where transient hues, and fancied figures rise ; 
Wide-spouted o'er the hill, the frozen brook, 
A livid tract, cold gleaming on the morn ; 
The forest bent beneath the plumy wave ; 
And by the frost refin'd the whiter snow, 
Incrusted hard, and sounding .to the tread 
Of early shepherd, as he pensive seeks 
His pining flock, or from the mountain top, 
Pleased with the slippery surface, swift descends. 
On blithesome frolics bent, the youthful swains, 
While every work of man is laid at rest, 
Fond o'er the river crowd, in various sport 
And revelry dissolv'd ; where mixing glad, 
Happiest of all the train ! the rapturd boy 
Lashes the whirling top. Or, where the Rhine* 
Branch'd out, in many a long canal extends, 
From every province swarming, void of care, 
Batavia rushes forth ; and as they sweep, 



202 WINTER. 

On sounding skates, a thousand different ways, 
In circling poise, swift as the winds, along, 
The then gay land is madden'd all to joy. 
Nor less the northern courts, wide o'er the snow, 
Pour a new pomp. Eager, on rapid sleds, 
Their vigorous youth in bold contention wheel 
The long-resounding course. Meantime to raise 
The manly strife, with highly blooming charms, 
Flush'd by the season, Scandinavia's dames, 
Or Russia's buxom daughters, glow around. 

Pure, quick, and sportful, is the wholesome day ; 
But soon elaps'd. The horizontal sun, 
Broad o'er the south, hangs at his utmost noon : 
And, ineffectual, strikes the gelid cliff: 
His azure gloss the mountain still maintains, 
Nor feels the feeble touch. Perhaps the vale 
Relents awhile to the reflected ray : 
Or from the forest falls the cluster'd snow, 
Myriads of gems, that in the waving gleam 
Gay twinkle as they scatter. Thick around 
Thunders the sport of those, who with the gun, 
And dog impatient bounding at the shot, 
Worse than the Season, desolate the fields ; 
And, adding to the ruins of the year, 
Distress the footed or the feather'd game. 

But what is this ? our infant Winter sinks, 
Divested of his grandeur, should our eye 
Astonish'd shoot into the frigid zone ; 
Where, for relentless months, continual Night 



WINTER. 203 

Holds o'er the glittering waste her starry reign. 

There, through the prison of unbounded wilds, 
Barr'd by the hand of Nature from escape, 
Wide roams the Russian exile. Naught around 
Strikes his sad eye but deserts lost in snow; 
And heavy-loaded groves; and solid floods, 
That stretch, athwart the solitary vast, 
Their icy horrors to the frozen main ; 
And cheerless towns far-distant, never bless'd, 
Save when its annual course the caravan 
Bends to the golden coast of rich Cathay • 
With news of human-kind. Yet there life glows; 
Yet cherish'd there, beneath the shining waste, 
The furry nations harbour : tip'd with jet, 
Fair enemies, spotless as the snows they press; 
Sables, of glossy black; and dark-embrown'd, 
Or beauteous freak'd with many a mingled hue, 
Thousands besides, the costly pride of courts. 
There, warm together press'd, the trooping deer 
Sleep on the new-fall'n snows; and, scarce his head 
Rais'd o'er the happy wreath, the branching elk 
Lies slumbering sullen in the white abyss. 
The ruthless hunter wants nor dogs nor toils, 
Nor with the dread of sounding bows he drives 
The fearful flying race ; with pond'rous clubs, 
As weak against the mountain-heaps they push 
Their beating breast in vain, and piteous bray, 
He lays them quivering on th' eusanguin'd snows. 

* The old name for China. 



204 WINTER. 

And with loud shouts, rejoicing, bears them home. 
There through the piny forest half-absorpt, 
Rough tenant of these shades, the shapeless bear, 
With dangling ice all horrid, stalks forlorn ; 
Slow-pac'd, and sourer as the storms increase, 
He makes his bed beneath tb' inclement drift, 
And, with stern patience, scorning weak complaint; 
Hardens his heart against assailing want. 

Wide o'er the spacious regions of the north, 
That see Bootes urge his tardy wain, 
A boisterous race, by frosty Caurus* pierc'd, 
Who little pleasure know, and fear no pain, 
Prolific swarm. They once relum'd the flame 
Of lost mankind in polish'd slavery sunk, 
Drove martial horde on horde,* with dreadful sweep 
Resistless rushing o'er th' enfeebled south, 
And gave the vanquish'd world another form. 
I\ t O( such the sons of Lapland: wisely they 
Despise th' insensate barbarous trade of war; 
They ask no more than simple Nature gives, 
They love their mountains, and enjoy their storms. 
]Vo false desires, no pride-created wants, 
Disturb the peaceful current of their time; 
And through the restless ever-tortur'd maze 
Of pleasure, or ambition, bid it ra?e. 
Their rein-deer form their riches. These their tents, 
Their robes, their beds, and aii their homely wealth 
Supply, their wholesome fare and cheerful cups. 

* The N orth-west wind. * The wandenng Scythian clans. 



WINTER. 205 

Obsequious at their call, the docile tribe 

Yield to the sled their necks, and whirl them swift 

O'er hill and dale, heap'd into one expanse 

Of marbled snow, as far as eye can sweep, 

With a blue crust of ice unbounded glaz'd. 

By dancing meteors then, that ceaseless shake 

A waving blaze refracted o'er the heavens, 

And vivid moons, and stars that keener play 

With double lustre from the glossy waste, 

Ev'n in the depth of polar night, they find 

A wondrous day : enough to light the chase, 

Or guide their daring steps to Finland fairs. 

Wish'd Spring returns; and from the hazy south, 

While dim Aurora slowly moves before, 

The welcome sun, just verging up at first, 

By small degrees extends the swelling curve ! 

Till seen at last for gay rejoicing months, 

Still round and round, his spiral course he winds, 

And as he nearly dips his flaming orb. 

Wheels up again, and reascends the sky. 

In that gla'd season, from the lakes and floods, 

Where pure Niemi's* fairy mountains rise, 

#M. deMaupertuis.in his book on the Figure of the Earth, 
after having described the beautiful lake and mountain of Ni- 
emi, in Lapland, says, " From this height we had opportunity- 
several times to see those vapours rise from the lake which the 
people of the country call Haltios, and which they deem to be 
the guardian-spirits of the mountains. We had been frighted with 
stories of bears that haunted this place, but saw none. Tt seemed 
rather a place of resort for fairies and genii, than bears." 
18 



206 WINTER. 

And, fring'd with roses, Tenglio* rolls his stream. 

They draw the copious fry. With these, at eve. 

They, cheerful loaded, to their tents repair; 

Where, all day long in useful cares employ'd, 

Their kind unblemish'd wives the fire prepare. 

Thrice happy race ! by poverty secur'd 

From legal plunder and rapacious power: 

In whom fell interest never yet has sown 

The seeds of vice : whose spotless swains ne'er knew 

Injurious deed ; nor, blasted by the breath 

Of faithless love, their blooming daughters woe. 

Still pressing on, beyond Tornea's lake, 
And Hecla flaming through a waste of snow, 
And furthest Greenland, to the pole itself, 
Where, failing gradual, life at length goes out, 
The Muse expands her solitary flight ; 
And, hovering o'er the wild stupendous scene, 
Beholds new seas beneath another sky.t 
Thron'd in his palace of cerulean ice, 
Here Winter holds his unrejoicing court ; 
And through his airy hall the loud misrule 
Of driving tempest is for ever heard : 
Here the grim tyrant meditates his wrath : 
Here arms his Avinds with all-subduing frost ; 
Moulds his fierce hail, and treasures up his snows, 

*The same author observes, " I was surprised to see upon the 
banks of this river (the Tenglio,) roses of as lively a red as any that 
are in our gardens." 

.tThe other hemisphere, 



WINTER. 207 

With which he now oppresses half the globe. 

Thence, winding eastward to the Tartar's coast, 
She sweeps the howling margin of the main; 
Where undissolving, from the first of time, 
Snows swell on snows amazing to the sky ; 
And icy mountains high on mountains pil'd, 
Seem to the shivering sailor from afar, 
Shapeless and white, an atmosphere of clouds, 
Projected huge, and horrid o'er the surge, 
Alps frown on Alps ; or rushing hideous down, 
As if old Chaos was again return'd, 
Wide-rend the deep, and shake the solid pole. 
Ocean itself no longer can resist 
The binding fury: but, in all its rage 
Of tempest taken by the boundless frost, 
Is many a fathom to the bottom chain'd, 
And bid to roar no more : a bleak expanse, 
Shagg'd o'er with wavy rocks, cheerless, and void 
Of every life, that from the dreary months 
Flies conscious southward. Miserable they ! 
Who, here entangled in the gathering ice, 
Take their last look of the decending sun ; 
While, full of death, and fierce with tenfold frost, 
The long, long ni^ht, incumbent o'er their heads, 
Falls horrible. Such was the Briton's* fate, 
As with first prow, (what have not Britons dar'd ?) 
He for the passage sought, attempted since 

• Sir Hugh Willoughby, sent by QueenjElizabeth to discover 
the north-east passage. 



208 WINTER. 

So much in vain, and seeming to be shut 

By jealous Nature with eternal bars. 

In these fell regions, in Arzina caught, 

And to the stony deep his idle ship 

Immediate seal'd, he with his hapless crew, 

Each full exerted at his several task, 

Froze into statues ; to the cordage glued 

The sailor, and the pilot to the helm. [stream 

Hard by these shores, where scarce his freezing 
Rolls the wild Oby, live the last of men ; 
And half enliven'd by the distant sun, 
That rears and ripens man, as well as plants, 
Here human Nature wears its rudest form. 
Deep from the piercing season sunk in caves, 
Here by dull fires, and with unjoyous cheer, 
They waste the tedious gloom. Immers'd in furs, 
Doze the gross race. Nor sprightly jest, nor song, 
Nor tenderness they know ; nor aught of life, 
Beyond the kindred bears that stalk without, 
Till morn at length, her roses drooping all, 
Sheds a long twilight brightening o'er their fields, 
And calls the quiver'd savage to the chase. 

What cannot active government perform, 
New-moulding man! Wide-stretching from these 
A people savage from remotest time, [shores, 

A huge neglected empire, one vast mind, 
By Heaven inspir'd. from gothic darkness call'd. 
Immortal Peter ! first of monarchs ! he 
His stubborn country tam'd, her rocks, her fens, 



WINTER. 209 

"Her floods, her seas, her ill-submitting sons; 
And while the fierce barbarian he subdu'd, 
To more exalted soul he rais'd the man. 
Ye shades of ancient heroes, ye who toil'd 
Through long successive ages to build up 
A labouring plan of state, behold at once 
The wonder done ! behold the matchless prince S 
Who left his native throne, where reign'd till then 
A mighty shadow of unreal power ; 
Who greatly spurn'd the slothful pomp of courts ; 
And roaming every land, in every port 
His sceptre laid aside, with glorious hand 
Unwearied plying the mechanic tool, 
Gather'd the seeds of trade, of useful arts, 
Of civil wisdom, and of martial skill. 
Charg'd with the stores of Europe, home he goes ! 
Then cities rise amid th' illumin'd waste ; 
O'er joyless deserts smiles the rural reign ; 
Far-distant flood to flood is social join'd ; 
Th' astonish'd Euxine hears the Baltic roar ; 
Proud navies ride on seas that never foara'd 
With daring keel before ; and armies stretch 
Each way their dazzling files, repressing here 
The frantic Alexander of the north, 
And awing there stern Othman's shrinking sons. 
Sloth flies the land, and Ignorance, and Vice, 
Of old dishonour proud : it glows around, 
Taught by the Royal Hand that rous'd the whole> 
One scene of arts, of arms, of rising trade : 
18* 



210 WINTER. 

For what his wisdom plann'd, and power enforc'd 
More potent still, his great example show'd. 

Muttering, the winds at eve, with blunted point* 
Blow hollow-blustering from the south. Subdued, 
The frost resolves into a trickling thaw. 
Spotted the mountains shine ; loose sleet descends, 
And floods the country round. The rivers swell, 
Of bonds impatient. Sudden from the hills, 
O'er rocks and woods, in broad brown cataracts, 
A thousand snow-fed torrents shoot at once ; 
And, where they rush, the wide-resounding plain 
Is left one slimy waste. Those sullen seas, 
That w-ash'd th' ungenial pole, will rest rio more 
Beneath the shackles of the mighty north ; 
But, rousing all their waves, resistless heave. 
And, hark! the lengthening roar continuous runs 
Athwart the rifted deep : at once it bursts, 
And piles a thousand mountains to the clouds. 
Ill fares the bark with trembling wretches charg'd, 
That, tost amid the floating fragments, moors 
Beneath the shelter of an icy isle, 
While night o'erwhelms the sea, and horror looks 
More horrible. Can human force endure 
Th' assembled mischiefs that besiege them round? 
Heart-gnawing hunger, fainting weariness, 
The roar of winds and waves, the crush of ice, 
Now ceasing, now renew'd with louder rage, 
And in dire echoes bellowing round the main. 
More to embroil the deep, Leviathan 



WINTER. 211 

And his unwieldy train, in dreadful sport, 
Tempest the loosen'd brine, while through the gloom, 
Far from the bleak inhospitable shore, 
Loading the winds, is heard the hungry howl 
Of famish'd monsters, there awaiting wrecks. 
Yet Providence, that ever-waking eye, 
Looks down with pity on the feeble toil 
Of mortals lost to hope, and lights them safe, 
Through all this dreary labyrinth of fate. 

'Tis done ! dread Winter spreads his latest glooms, 
And reigns tremendous o'er the conquer'd Year. 
How dead the vegetable kingdom lies ! 
How dumb the tuneful ! horror wide extends 
His desolate domain. Behold, fond man ! 
See here thy pictur'd life; pass some few years, 
Thy flowering Spring, thy Summer's ardent strength, 
Thy sober Autumn fading into age, 
And pale concluding Winter comes at last, 
And shuts the scene. Ah! whither now are fled 
Those dreams of greatness? those unsolid hopes 
Of happiness ? those longings after fame? 
Those restless cares? those busy bustling days? 
Those gay-spent, festive nights ? those veering 

thoughts, 
Lost between good and ill, that shar'd thy life ? 
All now are vanish'd ! Virtue sole-survives, 
Immortal never-failing friend of Man, 
His guide to happiness on high. And see ! 
'Tis come, the glorious morn ! the second birth 



212 WINTER. 

Of heaven and earth ! awakening Nature hears 

The new-creating word, and starts to life, 

In every heigh ten'd form, from pain and death 

For ever free. The great eternal scheme, 

Involving all, and in a perfect whole 

Uniting, as the prospect wider spreads, 

To reason's eye refin'd clears up apace. 

Ye vainly wise ! ye blind presumptuous! now, 

Confounded in the dust, adore that Power 

And Wisdom oft arraign'd : see now the cause, 

Why unassuming worth in secret liv'd, 

And died, neglected : why the good man's share 

In life was gall and bitterness of soul : 

Why the lone widow and her orphans pin'd 

In starving solitude ; while luxury, 

In palaces, lay straining her low thought, 

To form unreal wants : why heaven-born truth, 

And moderation fair, wore the red marks 

Of superstition's scourge : why licens'd pain, 

That cruel spoiler, that embosom'd foe, 

Embitter'd all our bliss. Ye good distress'd ! 

Ye noble few ! who here unbending stand 

Beneath life's pressure, yet bear up awhile, 

And what your bounded view, which only saw 

A little part, deem'd evil is no more : 

The storms of Wintry Time will quickly pass, 

And one unbounded Spring encircle alL 



HYMN. 



These, as they change, Almighty Father, these 
Are but the varied God. The rolling year 
Is full of Thee. Forth in the pleasing Spring 
Thy beauty walks, thy tenderness and love. 
Wide flush the fields ; the softening air is balm; 
Echo the mountains round ; the forest smiles; 
And every sense, and every heart is joy. 
Then comes thy glory in the Summer-months, 
With light and heat refulgent. Then thy sun 
Shoots full perfection through the swelling year : 
And oft thy voice in dreadful thunder speaks: 
And oft at dawn, deep noon, or falling eve, 
By brooks and groves, in hollow-whispering gales 
Thy bounty shines in Autumn unconfin'd, 
And spreads a common feast for all that lives. 
In Winter awful Thou! with clouds and storms 
Around Thee thrown, tempest o'er tempest rolPd. 
Majestic darkness! on the whirlwind's wing, 
Riding sublime, Thou bidst the world adore, 
And humblest Nature with thy northern blast. 

Mysterious round! what skill, what force divine, 
Deep felt, in these appear ! a simple train, 
Yet so delightful mix'd, with such kind art, 



214 HYMN. 

Such beauty and beneficence combin'd ; 
Shade, unperceiv'd, so softening into shade ; 
And all so forming an harmonious whole ; 
That, as they still succeed, they ravish still. 
But wandering oft, with brute unconscious gaze, 
Man marks not Thee, marks not the mighty hand, 
That ever-busy, wheels the silent spheres ; 
Works in the secret deep ; shoots, steaming, thence 
The fair profusion that o'erspreads the Spring i 
Flings from the sun direct the flaming day ; 
Feeds every creature ; hurls the tempest forth ; 
And, as on earth this grateful change revolves, 
With transport touches all the strings of life. 

Nature, attend ! join every living soul, 
Beneath the spacious temple of the sky, 
In adoration join ; and, ardent, raise 
One general song ! To Him, ye vocal gales, 
Breathe soft, whose Spirit in your freshness breathes :■ 
Oh, talk of Him in solitary glooms ! 
Where, o'er the rock, the scarcely waving pine 
Fills the brown shade with a religious awe. 
And ye, whose bolder note is heard afar, 
Who shake th' astonish'd world, lift high to heaven 
Th' impetuous song, and say from whom you rage.. 
His praise, ye brooks, attune, ye trembling rills ; 
And let me catch it as I muse along. 
Ye headlong torrents, rapid, and profound ; 
Ye softer floods, that lead the humid maze 
Along the vale \ and thou, majestic main* 



HYMN. 215 

A secret world of wonders in thyself, 

Sound His stupendous praise; whose greatervoice 

Or bids you roar, or bids your roarings fall. 

Soft roll your incense, herbs, and fruits, and flowers, 

In mingled clouds to Him ; whose sun exalts, 

Whose breath perfumes you, and whose pencil 

Ye forests bend, ye harvests wave, to Him ; [paints. 

Breathe your still song into the reaper's heart, 

As home he goes beneath the joyous moon. 

Ye that keep watch in heaven, as earth asleep 

Unconscious lies, effuse your mildest beams, 

Ye constellations, while your angels strike, 

Amid the spangled sky, the silver lyre. 

Great source of day ! best image here below 

Of thy Creator, ever pouring wide, 

From world to world, the vital ocean round, 

On Nature write with every beam His praise. 

The thunder rolls: be hush'd the prostrate world: 

While cloud to cloud returns the solemn hymn. 

Bleat out afresh, ye hills: ye mossy rocks, 

Retain the sound : the broad responsive low, 

Ye valleys, raise ; for the Great Shepherd reigns ; 

And his unsuffering kingdom yet will come. 

Ye woodlands all, awake : a boundless song 

Burst from the groves ! and when the restless day, 

Expiring, lays the warbling world asleep, 

Sweetest of birds ! sweet Philomela charm 

The listening shades, and teach the night His praise. 

Ye chief, for whom the whole creation smiles, 



216 HYMN. 

At once the head, the heart, and tongue of all, 
Crown the great hymn ; in swarming cities vast, 
Assembled men, to the deep organ join 
The long resounding voice, oft-breaking clear, 
At solemn pauses, through the swelling base ; 
And, as each mingling flame increases each, 
In one united ardour rise to heaven. 
Or if you rather choose the rural shade, 
And find a fane in every sacred grove ; 
*There let the shepherd's flute, the virgin's lay, 
The prompting seraph, and the poet's lyre, 
Still sing the God of Seasons, as they roll! — 
For me, when I forget the darling theme, 
Whether the blossom blows, the summer-ray 
Russets the plain, inspiring Autumn gleams, 
Or Winter rises in the blackening east ; 
Be my tongue mute, may fancy paint no more, 
And, dead to joy, forget my heart to beat ! 

Should fate command me to the furthest verge 
Of the green earth, to distant barbarous climes, 
Rivers unknown to song ; where first the sun 
Gilds Indian mountains, or his setting beam 
Flames on th' Atlantic isles ; 'tis naught to me : 
Since God is ever present, ever felt, 
In the void waste as in the city full ; 
And where He vital breathes there must be joy. 
When even at last the solemn hour shall come, 
And wing my mystic flight to future worlds, 
I cheerful will obey ; there, with new powers, 



HYMN. 217 

Will rising wonders sing : I cannot go 

Where Universal Love not smiles around, 

Sustaining all yon orbs, and all their sons ; 

From seeming Evil still educing Good, 

And better thence again, and better still, 

In infinite progression. But I lose 

Myself in Him, in Light ineffable ! 

Come then, expressive Silence, muse his praise. 



19 



CASTLE 



INDOLENCE, 



ALLEGORICAL POEM. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 

Tliis poem being written in the manner of Spe?iser, the obso- 
lete words, and a simplicity of diction in some of the lines, 
which borders on the ludicrous, were necessary to make the 
imitation more perfect. And the style of that admirable poet, 
as well as the measure in which he wrote, are, as it were, ap- 
propriated by custom to all allegorical Poems written in our 
anguage; just as in the French style of Marot, who lived under 
Francis I. has been used in tales, and familiar epistles, by the 
politest writers of the age of Lonis XIV, 



EXPLANATION 



OBSOLETE WORDS 



USED IN THIS POEM. 



Archimage— The chiefs or great- 
est of magicians or enchanters. 
A\>a\d— paid 
Appal— affright. 
Atweei. — between. 
Ay—ahvays. 

B 
Bale— sorrow, trouble, misfor- 
tune. 
Benempt— named. 
Blazon— painting, displaying. 
Bveme—cold,raw. 

C 
Carol— to sing songs of joy. 
Caucus— the north-east wind, 
Certes— certainly, 

D 
Dan— aword prefxedto names. 
Deftly— skilfully. 
Depainted— painted. 
Drowsy-head— drowsiness. 

E 
Eath— easy. 
Et'tsoons— immediately, often, 

afterxvards. 
Eke— also. 

F 
Fays— fairies. 

G 
Gear or Geex— furniture, equi- 
page, dress. 
Glaive— srvord. (Fr.) 
G\ee—joy, pleasure. 



H 

Han— have* 

Hight— named, called ; and 
sometimes it is ustd for is 
called. Ste Stanza vii. 
1 

Idless— Idleness. 

Imp— Child, or offspring ;from 
the Saxon impan, to graft or 
plant, 

K 

Kest — for. cast. 
J L 

Lad— for led. 

Lea— < apiece of land, or meadow. 

Li bba.nl— leopard, 

h\g—to lie. 

Losel— a loose idle fellow, 

Lo\n\r,g—borving. bending. 

Lithe— loose, lax. 
M 

Mell— mingle. 

Moe — more. 

Moil— to labour. 

Mote— might. 

Muehel or Mochel— much, 
great. 

N 

Pathless— nevertheless. 

'Ne—nor. 

Needments— necessaries. 

Noursling—a child that is nurs- 
ed, 

19* 



222 



Noyance— harm. 
P 

Praukt— coloured, adorned gay- 

ly. 
Perdie (Fr, par Dieu) an old 

oath. 
Prick'd thro' the forest— rode 

thro'' the forest. 
S 
Sear—a 7 ;*?/, burnt up. 
Sheen— b right, shi ning. 
Sicker — sure, surely. 
Soot — sweet, or sweetly. 
Sootli— true, or truth. 
Sto\m<b—2nufortune, pang. 
Sweltry — sultry, consuming 

■with heat. 
Swink— to labour. 
Saiacki—savowed. 

T 
Thrall— slave. 
Trsmsmew'd—transform'd. 

V J 
VM-vile. 



V 

Unkempt— (Lat. incimptus) 
unadorned* 

W 

Ween— to think, be of opinion. 

Weex—to know ; to weet, to wit. 

Wh-lom— ere-while, formerly. 

Wight— man. 

W\s,forWht—to know, think, 
understands 

Wonne— (a Noun) Dwelling. 

Wroke— wreakt. 
Y * 

Yborn — born- 

Yblent, or blent— blended, min- 
gled. 

Yclad— clad. 

Ycleped— called, named. 

Yfere— together. 

YxiOlten— melted. 

Yotle—(preter tense of yede) 
went. 



* The letter Y is frequently placed in the beginning of a word, ly 
Spenser, to lengthen it a syllable, and en at the end of a word, for the 
same reason, as withouten, casten,&c. 



THE 

CASTLE 

OF 

INDOLENCE, 



The castle hight of indolence, 

And its false luxury ; 
"Where for a little time, alas ! 
We liv'd right jollily. 



O mortal man, who livest here by toil, 
Do not complain of this thy hard estate ; 
That like an emmet thou must ever moil, 
Is a sad sentence of an ancient date ; 
And, certes, there is for it reason great ; 
For,tho' sometimes it makes thee weep and wail, 
And curse thy star, and early drudge and late, 
Withouten that would come an heavier bale, 
Loose life, unruly passions, and diseases pale. 

II. 

In lowly dale, fast by a river's side, 

With woody hill o'er hill encompass'd round, 

A most enchanting wizard did abide, 

Than whom a fiend more fell is no where found. 



224 THE CASTLE 

It was, I ween, a lovely spot of ground ; 
And there a season atween June and May, 
Half prankt with spring, with summer half im- 

brown'd, 
A listless climate made, where sooth to say, 
?s'o living wight could work, ne cared even for play. 

III. 

Was naught around but images of rest : 
Sleep-soothing groves, and quiet lawns between ; 
And flowery beds that slumbrous influence kest, 
From poppies breath'd; andbeds of pleasant green, 
Where never yet was creeping creature seen. 
Mean time unnumber'd glittering streamlets play'd, 
And hurled every where their waters sheen ; 
That, as they bicker'd through the sunny glade, 
Though restless still themselves, a lulling murmur 
made. 

IV. 

Join'd to the prattle of the purling rills, 
Were heard the lowing herds along the vale, 
And flocks loud-bleating from the distant hills, 
And vacant shepherds piping in the dale : 
And now and then sweet Philomel would waiJ, 
Or stock-doves plain amid the forest deep, 
That drowsy rustled to the sighing gale ; 
And still a coil the grasshopper did keep ; 
Yet all these sounds yblent inclined all to sleep. 



OF INDOLENCE. 225 



Full in the passage of the vale, above, 
A sable, silent, solemn forest stood ; [move, 

Where naught but shadowy forms was seen to 
As /dtefancy'd in her dreaming mood : 
And up the hills, on either side, a wood 
Of blackening pines, ay waving to and fro, 
Sent forth a sleepy horror through the blood ; 
And where this valley winded out, below, 
The murmuring main was heard, and scarcely heard 
to flow. 

VI. 

A pleasing land of drowsy-head it "was, 
Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye ; 
And of gay castles in the clouds that pass, 
For ever flushing round a summer-sky : 
There eke the soft delights, that witchingly 
Instil a wanton sweetness through the breast, 
And the calm pleasures always hover'd nigh ; 
But whate'er smack'd of noyance, or unrest, 
Was far far off* expell'd from this delicious nest. 

VII. 

The landskip such, inspiring perfect ease, 
Where Indolence (for so the wizard hight) 
Close-hid his castle mid embowering trees, 
That half shut out the beams of Phcebus bright, 



226 THE CASTLE 

And made a kind of checkered day and night ; 
Mean while, unceasing at the massy gate, 
Beneath a spacious palm, the wicked wight 
Was plac'd ; and to his lute, of cruel fate, 
And labour harsh,complain'd, lamenting man's estate, 

VIII. 

Thither continual pilgrims crowded still, 
From all the roads of earth that pass thereby : 
For, as they chaunc'd to breathe on neighbouring 
The freshness of this valley smote their eye, [hill, 
And drew them ever and anon more nigh; 
Till clustering round th' enchanter false they hung, 
Ymolten with his syren melody ; 
While o'er th' enfeebling lute his hand he flung, 
And to the trembling chords these tempting verses 
sung: 

IX. 

M Behold ! ye pilgrims of this earth, behold ! 
M See all but man with unearn'd pleasure gay: 
M See her bright robes the butterfly unfold, 
" Broke from her wintry tomb in prime of May ! 
" What youthful bride can equal her array ? 
" Who can with her for easy pleasure vie ? 
"From mead to mead with gentle wing to stray 
" From flower to flower on balmy gales to fly, 
M Is all she has to do beneath the radiant sky. 



OF INDOLENCE. 227 

X. 

" Behold the merry minstrels of the mora, 

u The swarming songsters of the careless grove, 

" Ten thousand throats ! that, from the flowering 

thorn, 
" Hymn their good God, and carol sweet of love, 
" Such grateful kindly raptures them emove : 
" They neither plough, nor sow ; ne, fit for flail, 
"E'er to the barn the nodden sheaves they drove ; 
" Yet theirs each harvest dancing in the gale, 
" Whatever crowns the hu% or smiles along the vale. 

XI. 

" Outcast of nature, man ! the wretched thrall 
" Of bitter-drooping sweat, of sweltry pain, 
41 Of cares that eat away the heart with gall, 
" And of the vices, an inhuman train, 
11 That all proceed from savage thirst of gain : 
" For when hard-hearted Interest first began 
" To poison earth, Jlstr&a left the plain ; 
" Guile, violence, and murder seiz'd on man, [ran. 
"And, for soft milky streams, with blood the rivers 

XII. 

a Come, ye, who still the cumbrous load of life 
" Push hard up bill ; but as the farthest steep 
11 You trust to gain, and put an end to strife, 
" Down thunders back the stone with mighty sweep, 



228 THE CASTLE 

" And hurls your labours to the valley deep, 
" For ever vain : coma, and, withouten fee, 
" I in oblivion will your sorrows steep, 
" Your cares, your toils, will steep you in a sea 
u Of full delight : O come, ye weary wights, to me ! 

XIII. 

€t With me, you need not rise at early dawn, 
" To pass the joyless day in various stounds ; 
u Or, louting low, on upstart fortune fawn, 
" And sell fair honour for some paltry pounds ; 
" Or through the city take your dirty rounds, 
" To cheat, and dun, and lye, and visit pay, 
" Now flattering base, now giving secret wounds ; 
" Or prowl in courts of law for human prey, 
il In venal senate thieve, or rob on broad highway. 

XIV. 

" No cocks, with me, to rustic labour call, 
" From village on to village sounding clear ; 
" To tardy swain no shrill-voic'd matrons squall ; 
** No dogs, no babes, no wives, to stun your ear ; 
" No hammers thump : no horrid blacksmith fear, 
11 No noisy tradesmen your sweet slumbers start, 
" With sounds that are a misery to hear : 
" But all is calm, as would delight the heart 
" Of Sybarite of old, all nature, and all art* 



OP INDOLENCE. 229- 

XV. 

" Here naught but candour reigns, indulgent ease, 
" Good-natur'd lounging, sauntering up and down: 
" They who are pleas'd themselves must always 

please ; 
" On others ways they never squint a frown, 
" Nor heed what haps in hamlet or in town : 
"Thus, from the source of tender indolence, 
" With milky blood the heart is overflown, 
" Is sooth'd and sweeten'd by the social sense ; 
' For interest,en vy ,pride,and strife are banish'd hence. 

XVI. 

" What, what, is virtue, but repose of mind, 
"A pure ethereal calm, that knows no storm; 
" Above the reach of wild ambition's wind, 
" Above those passions that this world deform, 
"And torture man, a proud malignant worm ? 
" But here, instead, soft gales of passion play, 
"And geutly stir the heart, thereby to form 
" A quicker sense of joy ; as breezes stray 
''Across th' enliven'd skies, and make them still 
more gay. 

XVII. 

" The best of men have ever lov'd repose : 
" They hate to mingle in the filthy fray ; 
" Where the soul sowrs, and gradual rancour grows, 
* Imbitter'd more from peevish day to day. 
20 



230 THE CASTLE 

*' Even those whom fame has lent her fairest ray, 
" The most renown 'd of worthy wights of yore, 
11 From a base world at last have stol'n away : 
" So Scipio, to the soft Cumcean shore 
" Retiring, tasted Joy he never knew before. 

XVIIL 

M But if a little exercise you choose, 
*' Some zest for ease, 'tis not forbidden here. 
" Amid the groves you may indulge the muse, 
** Or tend the blooms, and deck the vernal year; 
" Or softly stealing, with your wat'ry gear, 
*' Along the brooks, the crimson-spotted fry 
"You may delude : The whilst, amus'd, you bear 
" Now the hoarse stream, and now the Zephir's 
" sigh 
" Attuned to the birds, and woodland melody. 

XIX. 

" O grievous folly ! to heap up estate, 
" Losing the days you see beneath the sun ; 
" When, sudden, comes blind unrelenting fate, 
" And gives th' untasted portion you have won, 
" With ruthless toil, and many a wretch undone, 
" To those who mock you gone to Pluto's reign, 
" There with sad ghosts to pine, and shadows dun : 
"But sure it is of vanities most vain, 
i: To toil for what you here untoiling may obtain. v 



OF INDOLENCE. 231 

XX. 

He ceas'd. But still their trembling ears retainM 
The deep vibrations of his witching song : 
That, by a kind of magic power, constraint 
To enter in, pell-mell, the listening throng. 
Heaps pour'd on heaps, and yet they slipt along, 
In silent ease : as when beneath the beam 
Of summer-moons, the distant woods among, 
Or by some flood all silver'd with the gleam, 
The soft-embodied Fays through airy portal stream : 

XXI. 

By the smooth demon so it order'd was, 
And here his baneful bounty first began : [pass, 
Though some there were who would not further 
And his alluring baits suspected han. 
The wise distrust the too fair-spoken man. 
Yet through the gate they cast a wishful eye : 
Not to move on, perdie, is all they can ; 
For do their very best they cannot fly, 
But often each way look, and often sorely sigh. 

XXII. 

When this the watchful wicked wizard saw, 
With sudden spring he leap'd upon thejn straight ; 
And soon as touch'd by his unhallow'd paw, 
They found themselves within the cursed gate ; 
Full hard to be repass'd, like that of fate. 



232 THE CASTLE 

Not stronger were of old the giant-crew, 
Who sought to pull high Jove from regal state ; 
Though feeble wretch he seem'd, of sallow hue : 
Certes, who bides his grasp, will that encounter rue, 

XXIII. 

For whomso'er the villain takes in hand, 
Their joints unknit, their sinews melt apace ; 
As lithe they grow as any willow-wand, 
And of their vanished force remains no trace : 
So when a maiden fair, of modest grace, - 
In all her buxom blooming May of charms, 
Is seized in some losel's hot embrace, 
She waxeth very weakly as she warms, 
Then sighing yields her up to love's delicious harms. 

XXIV. 

Wak'd by the crowd, slow from his bench arose 
A comely full-spread porter, swoln with sleep : 
His calm, broad, thoughtless aspect breath'd re- 
pose ; 
And in sweet torpor he was plunged deep, 
Ne could himself from ceaseless yawning keep ; 
While o'er his eyes the drowsy liquor ran, 
Through which his half-wak'd soul would faintly 

peep. 
Then taking his black staff he call'd his man, 
And rous'd himself as much as rouse himself he can. 



GP INDOLENCE. 233 

XXV. 

The lad leap'd lightly at his master's call. 
He was, to weet, a little roguish page. 
Save sleep and play who minded naught at all. 
Like most the untaught striplings of his age. 
This boy he kept each band to disengage, 
Garters and buckles, task for him unfit, 
But ill-becoming his grave personage, 
And which his portly paunch would not permit, 
So this same limber page to all performed it. 

XXVI. 

Mean time the master-porter wide display'd 
Great store of caps, of slippers, and of gowns ; 
Wherewith he those who enter'd in, array'd 
Loose, as the breeze that plays along the downs, 
And waves the summer-woods when evening 

frowns. 
O fair undress, best dress ! it checks no vein, 
But every flowing limb in pleasure drowns, 
And heightens ease with grace. Thisdone, rightfain, 
Sir porter set him down, and turned to sleep again. 

XXVII. 

Thus easy robb'd, they to the fountain sped, 
That in the middle of the court up-threw 
A stream, high-spouting from its liquid bed, 
And falling back again in drizzly dew ; 
*20 



234 THE CASTLE 

There each deep draughts, as deephe thirsted, drew. 
It was a fountain of Nepenthe rare : 
Whence, as Dan Homer sings, huge pleasaunce 
And sweet oblivion of vile earthly care ; [grew, 
Fair gladsome waking thoughts, and joyous dreams 
more fair. * 

XXVIH. 

This rite perform'd, all inly pleas'd and still, 

Withouten tromp, was proclamation made. 

* Ye sons of Indolence, do what you will ; 

" And wander where you list, thro' hall or glade ! 

" Be no man's pleasure for another staid ; 

" Let each as likes him best his hours employ, 

" And curs'd be he who minds his neighbour's 

trade ! 
" Here dwells kind ease and unreproving joy : 
a He little merits bliss who others can annoy." 

XXIX. 

Straight of these endless numbers, swarming round, 
As thick as idle motes in sunny ray, 
Not one eftsoons in view was to be found, 
But every man stroll'd off his own glad way, 
Wide o'er this ample court's blank area, 
With all the lodges that thereto pertain'd, 
No living creature could be seen to stray ; 
While solitude, and perfect silence reign'd : 
So that to think you dreamt you almost was con- 
strain 'd. 



OF INDOLENCE. 235 



XXX. 



As when a shepherd of the Hebrid Isles* 
Plac'd far amid the melancholy main, 
(Whether it be lone fancy him beguiles J 
Or that a'e'rial beings sometimes deign 
To stand, embodied, to our senses plain) 
Sees on the naked hill, or valley low, 
The whilst in ocean Phoebus dips his wain, 
A vast assembly moving to and fro : 
Then all at once in air dissolves the wondrous show,. 

XXXI. 

Ye gods of quiet, and of sleep profound ! 
Whose soft dominion o'er this castle sways, 
And all the widely-silent places round, 
Forgive me, if my trembling pen displays 
What never yet was sung in mortal lays. 
But how shall I attempt such arduous string, 
I who have spent my nights and nightly days, 
In this soul-deadening place, loose-loitering? 
Ah ! how shall I for this uprear my moulted wing ? 

xxxir. 

Come on, my muse, nor stoop to low despair^ 
Thou imp of Jove ; touch'd by celestial fire I 
Which yet shall sing of war, and actions fair, 
Which the bold sons of Britain will inspire; 

* Those islands on the western coast of Scotland called the 
Hebrides* 



236 THE CASTLE 

Of ancient bards thou yet shalt sweep the lyre ; 
Thou yet shall tread in tragic pall the stage, 
Paint love's enchanting woes, the heroe's ire, 
The sage's calm, the patriot's noble rage, 
Dashing corruption down through every worthless 
age. 

xxxm. 

The doors, that knew no shrill alarming bell, 
No cursed knocker ply'd by villain's hand, 
Self-open'd into halls, where, who can tell 
What elegance and grandeur wide expand 
The pride of Turkey and of Persia land ? 
Soft quilts on quilts, on carpets carpets spread, 
And couches stretch'd around in seemly band; 
And endless pillows rise to prop the head ; 
So that each spacious room was one full swelling 
bed. 

XXXIV. 

And every where huge cover 'd tables stood, 
With wines high-flavour'd and rich viands crown'd : 
Whatever sprightly juice or tasteful food 
On the green bosom of this earth are found, 
And all old ocean genders in his round : 
Some hand unseen these silently display'd, 
Even undemanded by a sign or sound; 
You need but wish, and, instantly obey'd, 
Fair-rang'd the dishes rose, and thick the glasses 
play'd. 



OP INDOLENCE. 237 



XXXV. 



Here freedom reign'd, without the least alloy ; 
Nor gossip's tale, nor ancient maiden's gall, 
Nor saintly spleen durst murmur at our joy, 
And with envenom'd tongue our pleasures pall. 
For why? there was but one great rule for all j 
To wit, that each should work his own desire, 
And eat, drink, study, sleep, as it may fall, 
Or melt the time in love, or wake the lyre, 
And carol what, unbid, the muses might inspire, 

XXXVI. 

The rooms with costly tapestry were hung, 
Where was inwoven many a gentle tale ; 
Such as of old the rural poets sung, 
Or of Arcadian or Sicilian vale : 
Reclining lovers, in the lonely dale, 
Pour'd forth at large the sweetly-tortur'd heart; 
Or, sighing tender passion, swell'd the gale, 
And taught charm'd echo to resound their smart * T 
While flocks, woods, streams, around, repose and 
peace impart. 

XXXVII. 

Those pleas'd the most, where, by a cunning hand, 
Depainted was the patriarchal age ; 
What time Dan Abraham left the Chaldee land, 
And pastur'd on from verdant stage to stage. 



238 THE CASTLE 

Where fields and fountains fresh could best engage, 
Toil was not then. Of nothing took they heed, 
But with wild beasts the sylvan war to wage, 
And o'er vast plains their herds and flocks to feed : 
Blest sons of nature they ! true golden age indeed ! 

XXXVIII. 

Sometimes the pencil, in cool airy halls, 
Bade the gay bloom of vernal landskips rise, 
Or autumn's varied shades imbrown the walls : 
Now the black tempest strikes the astonish 'd eyes; 
Now down the steep the flashing torrent flies; 
The trembling sun now plays o'er ocean blue, 
And now rude mountains frown amid the skies ; 
Whate'er Lorrain light-touch'd with softening hue, 
Or savage Rosa dash' d, or learned Poussin drew. 

XXXIX. 

Each sound too here to languishment inclin'd, 
LulPd the weak bosom, and induced ease. 
Aerial music in the warbling wind, 
At distance rising oft, by small degrees, 
Nearer and nearer came, till o'er the trees 
It hung, and breath'd such soul-dissolving airs, 
As did, alas ! with soft perdition please : 
Entangled deep in its enchanting snares, 
The listening heart forgot all duties aud all cares. 



OF INDOLENCE. 239 



XL. 



A certain music, never known before, 
Here lull'd the pensive melancholy mind j 
Full easily obtain'd. Behoves no more, 
But sidelong, to the gently-waving wind, 
To lay the well-tun'd instrument reclin'd ; 
From which, with airy flying fingers light, 
Beyond each mortal touch the most refin'd, 
The god of winds drew sounds of deep delight ; 
: Whence, with just cause, The harp ofJEolus*it hight* 

XLL 

Ah me ! what hand can touch the string so fine ? 
' Who up the lofty Diapasan roll 

Such sweet, such sad, such solemn airs divine, 
Then let them down again into the soul ? 
Now rising love they fann'd ; now pleasing dole 
They breath'd, in tender musings,through the heart; 
And now a graver sacred strain they stole, 
As when seraphic hands an hymn impart: 
Wild- warbling nature all, above the reach of art! 

* This is not an imagination of the author; there being in 
fact such an instrument, called JEoZus's harp, which, when 
placed against a little rushing or current of air, produces the 
effect here described. 



240 THE CASTLE 



XL1I. 

Such the gay splendour, the luxurious state, 
Of Caliphs old, who on the Tygris' shore, 
In mighty Bagdat, populous and great, 
Held their bright court, where was of ladies store ; 
And verse, love, music still the garland wore : 
When sleep was coy, the bard,* in waiting there* 
Cheer'd the lone midnight with the Muse's lore ; 
Composing music bade his dreams be fair, 
And music lent new gladness to the morning air. 

XLIII. 

Near the pavilions where we slept, still ran 
Soft-tinkling streams, and dashing waters feh% 
And sobbing breezes, sigh'd, and oft began 
(So work'd the wizard) wintry storms to swelf, 
As heaven and earth they would together mell ' 
At doors and windows, threatening, seem'dto call 
The demons of the tempest, growling fell, 
Yet the least entrance found they none at all ; 
Whence sweeter grew our sleep, secure in massy hall, 

XL1V. 

And hither Morpheus sent his kindest dreams, 
Raising a world of gayer tinct and grace ; 
O'er which were shadowy cast elysian gleams, 
That play'd. in waving lights, from place to place, 

* The Arabian Caliphs had poets among the officers of their 
court, whose office it was to do what is here mentioned. 



OF INDOLENCE. 241 

And shed a roseate smile on nature's face. 
Not Titian's pencil e'er could so array, 
So fleece with clouds the pure ethereal space; 
Ne could it e'er such melting forms display, 
As loose on flowery beds all languishingly lay, 

XLV. 

No, fair illusions ! artful phantoms, no ! 
My Muse will not attempt your fairy-land : 
She has no colours that like you can glow : 
To catch your vivid scenes to gross her hand. 
But sure it is, was ne'er a subtler band 
Than these same guileful angel-seeming sprights, 
Who thus in dreams, voluptuous, soft, and bland, 
Pour'd all th' Arabian Heaven upon our nights, 
And bless'd them oft besides with more refin'd de- 
lights. 

XL VI. 

They were in sooth a most enchanting train, 
Even feigning virtue ; skilful to unite 
With evil good, and strew with pleasure pain. 
But for those fiends, whom blood and broils delight ; 
Who hurl the wretch, as if to tsell outright, 
Down down black gulphs, where sullen waters 

sleep, 
Or hold him clambering all the fearful night 
On beetling cliffs, or pent in ruins deep ; [keep. 
They, till due time should serve, were bid far hence to 
21 



242 THE CASTLE 



XL VII. 



Ye guardian spirits, to whom man is dear, 
From these foul demons shield the midnight gloom; 
Angels of fancy and of love, be near, 
And o'er the blank of sleep diffuse a bloom : 
Evoke the sacred shades of Greece and Rome, 
And let them virtue with a look impart : 
But chief, a while ! lend us from the tomb 
Those long-lost friends for whom in love we smart, 
And fill with pious awe and joy-mixt wo the heart. 

XLVIH. 

Or are you sportive Bid the morn of youth 

Rise to new light, and beam afresh the days 
Of innocence, simplicity, and truth ; 
To cares estrang'd, and manhood's thorny ways. 
What transport, to retrace our boyish plays, 
Our easy bliss, when each thing joy supply'd ; 
The woods, the mountains, and the warbling maze 
Of the wild brooks ! — But, fondly wandering wide, 
My muse, resume the task that yet doth thee abide. 

XLIX. 

One great amusement of our household was, 
In a huge crystal magic globe to spy, 
Still as you turn'd it, all things that do pass 
Upon this ant-hill earth ; where constantly 



OF INDOLENCE. 243 

Of idly-busy men the restless fry 
Run bustling to and fro with foolish haste, 
In search of pleasures vain that from them fly, 
Or which obtain'd the caitiffs dare not taste : 
When nothing isenjoy'd, can there be greater waste ? 



Of vanity the mirror this was call'd. 
Here you a muckworm of the town might see, 
At his dull desk, amid his legers stall'd, 
Eat up with carking care and penury; 
Most like to carcass parch'd on gallows-tree. 
A. penny saved is a penny got ; 
Firm to this scoundrel maxim keepeth he, 
Ne of its rigour will he bate a jot, 
Till it has quench'd his fire, and banished his pot 

LI. 

Straight from the filth of this low grub, behold 1 
Comes fluttering forth a gaudy spendthrift heir, 
All glossy gay, enamel'd all with gold, 
The silly tenant of the summer-air, 
In folly lost, of nothing takes he care ; 
Pimps, lawyers, stewards, harlots, flatterers vile, 
And thieving tradesmen him among them share : 
His father's ghost from limbo-lake, the while 
Sees this, which more damnation doth upon him pile, 



244 THE CASTLE 

in. 

This globe portray'd the race of learned men, 
Still at their books, and turning o'er the page, 
Backwards and forwards : oft they snatch the pen f 
As if inspir'd, and in a Thespian rage ; 
Then write, and blot, as would your ruth engage : 
Why, Authors, all this scrawl and scribbling sore ? 
To lose the present, gain the future age, 
Praised to be when you can hear no more, [store. 
And much enrich'd with fame when useless worldly 

LIII. 

Then would a splendid city rise to view, 
With carts, and cars, and coaches roaring all : 
Wide-pour'd abroad behold the giddy crew ; 
See how they dash along from wall to wall ! 
At every door, hark how they thundering call ! 
Good Lord ! what can this giddy rout excite I 
Why, on each other with fell tooth to fall ; 
A neighbour's fortune, fame, or peace, to blight, 
And make new tiresome parties for the coming night. 

LIV. 

The puzzling sons of party next appear'd, 
In dark cabals and nightly juntos met ; [rear'd 
And now they whisper'd close, now shrugging 
TV important shoulder ; then, as if to get 



OF INDOLENCE. 245 

New light, their twinkling eyes Avere inward set. 
No sooner Lucifer* recalls affairs, 
Than forth they various rush in mighty fret; [cares, 
When lo ! push'd up to pow'r, and crown'd their 
In comes another set, and kicketh them down stairs, 

LV. 

But what most sbow'd the vanity of life, 
Was to behold the nations all on fire, 
In cruel broils engag'd, and deadly strife : 
Most christian kings, inflam'd by black desire, 
With honourable ruffians in their hire, 
Cause war to rage, and blood around to pour : 
Of this sad work when each begins to tire, 
Then set them down just where they were before, 
Till for new scenes of wo peace shall their force 
restore. 

LVI. 

To number up the thousands dwelling here> 
And useless were, and eke an endless task; 
From kings, and those who at the helm appear, 
To gipsies brown, in summer^glades who bask. 
Yea, many a man perdie I could unmask, 
Whose desk and table make a solemn show, 
With tape-ty'd trash, and suits of fools that ask 
For place or pension laid in decent row ; 
But these I passen by, with nameless numbers moe. 

* The morning star. 

21* 



246 THE CASTLE 

LVII. 

Of all the gentle tenants of the place, 
There was a man of special grave remark : 
A certain tender gloom o'erspread his face, 
Pensive, not sad; in thought involv'd, not dark; 
As soot this man could sing as morning lark, 
And teach the noblest morals of the heart : 
But these his talents were yburied stark ; 
Of the fine stores he nothing would impart, 
Which or boon nature gave, or nature-painting art. 

LVIII. 

To noontide shades incontinent he ran, 
Where purls the brook with sleep-inviting sound ; 
Or When Dan Sol to slope his wheels began, 
Amid the broom he bask'd him on the ground, 
Where the wild thyme and camomile are found ; 
There would he linger, till the latest ray 
Of light sat trembling on the welkin's bound ; 
Then homeward through the twilight shadows stray 
Sauntering and slow. So had he passed many a day, 

LIX. 

Yet not in thoughtless slumber were they past : 
For oft the heavenly fire, that lay conceaFd 
Beneath the sleeping embers, mounted fast, 
And all its native light anew reveal'd : 



OF INDOLENCE. 247 

Oft as he travers'd the cerulean field, 
And markt the clouds that drove before the wind, 
Ten thousand glorious systems would he build, 
Ten thousand great ideas fill'd his mind ; [hind, 
But with the clouds they fled, and left no trace be- 

LX. 

With him was sometimes join'd, in silent walk,. 
(Profoundly silent, for they never spoke 
One shyer still, who quite detested talk : 
Oft, stung by spleen, at once away he broke, 
To groves of pine, and broad o'ershading oak ; 
There, inly thrill'd, be wander'd all alone, 
And on himself his pensive fury wroke, 
Ne ever utter'd word, save when first shone 
The glittering star of eve — " Thank heaven ! the day 
is done." 

LXI. 

Here lurk'd a wretch, who had not crept abroad 
For forty years, ne face of mortal seen ; 
In chamber brooding like a loathly toad : 
And sure his linen was not very clean. 
Through secret loop-holes, that had practis'd been 
Near to his bed, his dinner vile he took ; 
Unkempt, and rough, of squalid face and mien, 
Our castle's shame ! whence, from his filthy nook, 
We drove the villain out for fitter lair to look. 



248 THE CASTLE 

LX1T. 

One day there chaunc'd into these halls to rove 
A joyous youth, who took you at first sight ; 
Him the wild wave of pleasure hither drove, 
Before the sprightly tempest tossing light : 
Certes, he was a most engaging wight, 
Of social glee, and wit humane though keen, 
Turning the night to day, and day to night • 
For him the merry bells had rung, I ween, 
If in this nook of quiet bells had ever been. 

LXIII. 

But not even pleasure to excess is good ^ 
What most elates then sinks the soul as low i 
When spring-tide joy pours in with copious flood, 
The higher still the exulting billows flow, 
The farther back again they flagging go, 
And leave us groveling on the dreary shore : 
Taught by this son of joy, we found it so ; 
Who. whilst he staid, he kept in gay uproar 
Our madden 'd castle all, th' abode of sleep no more, 

LXIV. 

As when in prime of June, a burnish'd fly, 
Sprungfrom the meads,o'er which he sweeps along, 
Cheer'd by the breathing bloom and vital sky, 
Tunes up amid these airy halls his song, 



OF INDOLENCE. 249 

Soothing at first the gay reposing throng : 
And oft he sips their bowl ; or nearly drown'd, 
He, thence recovering, drives their beds among. 
And scares their tender sleep, with trump profound ; 
Then out again he flies, to wing his mazy round. 

LXV. 

Another guest there was, of sense refin'd, 
Who felt each worth, for every worth he had ; 
Serene, yet warm ; humane, yet firm his mind, 
As little touch'd as any man's with bad; 
Him through their inmost walks the muses led, 
To him the sacred love of nature lent, 
And sometimes would he make our valley glad ; 
When as we found he would not here be pent, 
To him the better sort this friendly message sent. 

LXVI. 

" Come, dwell with us ! true son of virtue, come \ 
" But if, alas ! we cannot thee persuade, 
" To lie content beneath our peaceful dome, 
" Ne ever more to quit our quiet glade ; 
" Yet when at last thy toils but ill apaid 
" Shall dead thy fire, and damp its heavenly spark, 
" Thou wilt be glad to seek the rural shade, 
" There to indulge the muse, and nature mark; 
" We then a lodge for thee will rear in Hagley Park." 



250 THE CASTLE 

LXVII. 

Here whilom ligg'd th' Esopm* of the age ; 
But call'd by fame, in soul ypricked deep, 
A noble pride restor'd him to the stage, 
And rons'd him like a gyant from his sleep. 
Even from his slumbers we advantage reap : 
With double force th 1 enliven'd scene he wakes, 
Yet quits not nature's bounds. He knows to keep 
Each due decorum : Now the heart he shakes, 
And now with well-urg'd sense the enlighten'd judg- 
ment takes. 

LXVIII. 

A bard here dwelt, more fat than bard beseems ; 
tWho, void of envy, guile, and lust of gain, 
On virtue still, and nature's pleasing themes, 
Pour'd forth his unpremeditated strain : 
The world forsaking with a calm disdain 
Here laugh'd he careless in his easy seat; 
Here quaff'd, encircled with the joyous train, 
Oft moralizing sage : his ditty sweet 
He loathed much to write, ne cared to repeat. 

* Mr. Quin. 

t The following lines of this stanza were written by a friencl 
©f the author. 



OF INDOLENCE. 251 



LXIX. 



Full oft by holy feet our ground was trod, 
Of clerks good plenty here you mote espy. 
A little, round, fat, oily man of God, 
Was one I chiefly mark'd among the fry : 
He had a roguish twinkle in his eye, 
And shone all glittering with ungodly dew, 
If a tight damsel chaunc'd to trippen by ; 
Which when observ'd, he shrunk into his mew, 
And straight would recollect his piety anew. 

LXX. 

Nor be forgot a tribe, who minded naught 
(Old inmates of the place) but state-affairs : 
They look'd, perdie, as if they deeply thought ; 
And on their brow sat every nation's cares. 
The world by them is parcel'd out in shares, 
When in the Hall of Smoke they congress hold, 
And the sage berry, sun-burnt Mocha bears, 
Has clear'd their inward eye : then, smoke enroll'd, 
Their oracles break forth mysterious as of old. 

LXXI. 

Here languid beauty kept her pale-fac'd court ; 
Bevies of dainty dames, of high degree, 
From every quarter hither made resort ; 
Where, from gross mortal care and business free, 



252 THE CASTLE 

They lay, pour'd out in ease and luxury. 
Or should they a vain show of work assume, 
Alas ! and well-a-day ! what can it be ? 
To knot, to twist, to range the vernal bloom ; 
But far is cast the distaff, spinning-wheel, and loom. 

LXXII. 

Their only labour was to kill the time ; 
And labour dire it is, and weary wo, 
They sit, they loll, turn o'er some idle rhyme ; 
Then, rising sudden, to the glass they go, 
Or saunter forth, with tottering step, and slow : 
This soon too rude an exercise they find ; 
Straight on the couch their limbs again they throw, 
Where hours on hours they sighing lie reclin'd, 
And court the vapoury god soft breathing in the wind- 

LXXIII. 

IVow must I mark the villany we found, 
But ah ! too late, as shall eftsoons be shown. 
A place here was, deep, dreary, under ground ; 
Where still our inmates, when unpleasing grown, 
Diseas'd, and loathsome, privily were thrown. 
Far from the light of heaven, they languish'd there, 
Unpity'd, uttering many a bitter groan ; 
For of these wretches taken was no care: 
Fierce fiends, and hags of hell, their only nurses were. 



OF INDOLENCE. 253 

LXXIV. 

Alas ! the change ! from scenes of joy and rest, 
To this dark den, where sickness toss'd alway, 
Here Lethargy, with deadly sleep opprest, 
Stretch 'd on his back, a mighty lubbard, lay, 
Heaving his sides, and snored night and day ; 
To stir him from his traunce it was not eath, 
And his half-open'd eyne he shut straightway : 
He led, I wot. the softest way to death, [breath. 
And taught withouten pain and strife to yield the 

LXXV. 

Of limbs enormous, but withall unsound, 
Soft-swoln and pale, here lay the Hydropsy : 
Unwieldy man ; with belly monstrous round, 
For ever fed with watery supply ; 
For still he drank, and yet he still was dry. 
And moping here did Hypochondria sit, 
Mother of spleen, in robes of various dye, 
Who vexed was full oft with ugly fit ; [a wit. 
And some her frantic deem'd, and some her deem'd 

LXXVI. 

A lady proud she was, of ancient blood, 
Yet oft her fear her pride made couchen low : 
She felt, or fancy'd in her fluttering mood, 
All the diseases which the spittles know. 



22 



254 THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE. 



And sought all physic which the shops bestow, 
And still new leaches and new drugs would try, 
Her humour ever wavering to and fro ; 
Forsometimes she would laugh, and sometimes cry, 
Then sudden waxed wroth, and all she knew not why, 

LXXVII. 

Fast by her side a listless maiden pin'd, 
With aching head, and squeamish heart-burnings ; 
Pale, bloated, cold, she seem'd to hate mankind, 
Yet lov'd in secret all forbidden things. 
And here the Tertian shakes his chilling wings ; 
The sleepless Gout here counts the crowing cocks, 
A wolf now gnaws him, now a serpent stings ; . 
While Apoplexy cramm'd intemperance knocks 
Down to the ground at once, as butcher felleth ox. 






CANTO II. 



The knight of arts and industry, 
And his achievements r'air ; 

That, by this castle's overthrow, 
Secur'd, and crowned were. 



Escaped the castle of the sire of sin, 
Ah ! where shall I so sweet a dwelling find ? 
For all around, without, and all within, 
Nothing save w T hat delightful was and kind, 
Of goodness savouring and a tender mind, 
E'er rose to view. But now another strain, 
Of doleful note, alas ! remains behind : 
I now must sing of pleasure turn'd to pain, 
And of the false enchanter Indolence complain. 

II. 

Is there no patron to protect the muse, 

And fence for her Parnassus' barren soil ? 

To every labour its reward accrues,. 

And they are sure of bread who swink and moil ; 



256 THE CASTLE 

But a fell tribe th 1 Aonian hive, despoil, 
As ruthless wasps oft rob the painful bee : 
Thus while the laws not guard that noblest toif r 
Ne for the muses other meed decree, 
They praised are alone, and starve right merrily* 

III. 

I care not, fortune, what you me deny : 
You cannot rob me of free nature's grace ; 
You cannot shut the windows of the sky, 
Through which Aurora shows her brightening face, 
You cannot bar my constant feet to trace 
The woods and lawns, by living stream, at eve : 
Let health my nerves and finer fibres brace, 
And I their toys to the great Children leave : 
Of fancy, reason, virtue, naught can me bereave. 

IV. 

Come then, my muse, and raise a bolder song> 
Come, lig no more upon the bed of sloth, 
Dragging the lazy languid line along, 
Fond to begin, but still to finish loth, 
Thy half-writ scrolls all eaten by the moth : 
Arise, and sing that generous imp of fame, 
Who with the sons of softness nobly wroth, 
To sweep away this human lumber came, 
Or in a chosen few to rouse the slumbering flame. 



OF INDOLENCE. 257 



In Fairy Land there liv'd a knight of old, 
Of feature stern, Selvaggio well yclep'd, 
A rough unpolish'd man, robust and bold, 
But wondrous poor : he neither sow'd norreap'd. 
Ne stores in summer for cold winter heap'd ; 
In hunting all his days away he wore ; 
Now scorch'd by June, now in November steep'd, 
Now 7 pinch'd by biting January sore, 
He still in woods pursu'd the libbard and the boar. 

VI. 

As he one morning, long before the dawn, 
Prick'd through the forest to dislodge iris prey, 
Deep in the winding bosom of a lawn, 
With wood wild-fring'd, he mark'd a taper's ray, 
That from the beating rain, and wintry fray, 
Did to a lonely cot his steps decoy ; 
There, up to earn the needments of the day, 
He found dame Poverty, not fair nor coy : 
Her he compress'd, and fill'd her with a lusty boy. 

VII. 

Amid the green-wood shade this boy was bred, 
And grew at last a knight of muchel fame, 
Of active mind and vigorous lustyhed, 
The Knight of Arts and Industry by name. 



22* 



258 THE CASTLE 

Earth was his bed, the boughs his roof did frame } 
He knew no beverage but the flowing stream ; 
His tasteful well-earn'd food the sylvan game, 
Or the brown fruit with which the wood-lands teem: 
The same to him glad summer, or the winter breme. 

VIII. 

So pass'd his youthly morning, void of care, 
Wild as the colts that through the commons run : 
For him no tender parents troubled were, 
He of the forest seem'd to be the son, 
And certes had been utterly undone ; 
But that Minerva pity of him took, 
With ali the gods that love the rural wonne, 
That teach to tame the soil and rule the crook ; 
Ne did the sacred nine disdain a gentle look. 

IX. 

Of fertile genius him they nurtur'd well, 
In every science, and in every art, 
By which mankind the thoughtless brutes excel, 
That can or use, or joy, or grace impart, 
Disclosing all the powers of head and heart : 
Ne where the goodly exercises spar'd, 
That brace the nerves, or make the limbs alert, 
And mix elastic force with firmness hard : [par'd. 
Was never knight on ground mote be with him com- 



OF INDOLENCE. 259 



X. 



Sometimes, with early morn, he mounted gay 
The hunter-steed, exulting o'er the dale, 
And drew the roseat breath of orient day ; 
Sometimes, retiring to the secret vale, 
Yclad in steel, and bright with burnish'd mail, 
He strain'd the bow, or toss'd the sounding spear, 
Or darting on the goal outstrip'd the gale, 
Or wheel'd the chariot in its mid-career, [peer. 
Or strenuous wrestled hard with many a tough com- 

XI. 

At other times he pry'd through nature's store, 
Whate'er she in th' ethereal round contains, 
Whate'er she hides beneath her verdant floor, 
The vegetable and the mineral reigns ; 
Or else he scann'd the Globe, those small domains, 
Where restless mortals such a turmoil keep, 
Its seas, its floods, its mountains, and its plains ; 
But more he search'd the mind, and rous'd from 
sleep 
Those moral seeds whence we heroic actions reap. 

XII. 

Nor would he scorn to stoop from high pursuits 
Of heavenly truth, and practice what she thought. 
Vain is the tree of knowledge without fruits, 
Sometimes in hand the spade or plough he caught, 



260 THE CASTLE 

Forth-calling all with which boon earth is fraught ; 
Sometimes he ply'd the strong mechanic tool, 
Or rear'd the fabric from the finest draught ; 
And oft he put himself to Neptune's school, 
Fighting with winds and waves on the vext ocean 
pool. 

XIII. 

To solace then these rougher toils, he try'd 
To touch the kindling canvass into life ; 

_ With nature his creating pencil vy'd, 
With nature joyous at the mimic strife : 
Or, to such shapes as grac'd Pygmalion's wife, 
He hew'd the marble ; or, with vary'd fire, 
He rous'd the trumpet and the martial fife, 
Or bad the lute sweet tenderness inspire, 

Or verses fram'd that well might wake Apollo's lyre. 

XIV. 

Accomplish'd thus he from the woods issu'd, 
Full of great aims, and bent on bold emprize ; 
The work, which long he in his breast had brew'd, 
Now to perform he ardent did devise ; 
To-wit, a barbarous world to civilize. 
Earth was till then a boundless forest wild ; 
Naught to be seen but savage wood, and skies ; 
No cities nourish'd arts, no culture smil'd, 
No government, no laws, no gentle manners mild. 



OF INDOLENCE. 261 



XV. 



A rugged wight, the worst of brutes, was man ; 
On his own wretched kind he, ruthless, prey'd : 
The strongest still the weakest over-ran ; 
In every country mighty robbers sway'd, 
And guile and ruffian force were all their trade. 
Life was a scene of rapine, want, and wo ; 
Which this brave knight, in noble anger, made 
To swear, he would the rascal rout o'erthrow, 
For, by the powers divine, it should no more be so ! 

XVI. 

It would exceed the purport of my song, 
To say how this best Sun, from orient climes 
Came beaming life and beauty all along, 
Before him chasing indolence and crimes. 
Still as he pass'd, the nations he sublimes, 
And calls forth arts and virtues with his ray: 
Then Egypt, Greece, and Rome, their golden times,- 
Successive, had ; but now in ruins gray 
They lie, to slavish sloth and tyranny a prey. 

XVII. 

To crown his toils, Sir Industry then spread 
The swelling sail, and made for Britain's coast. 
A sylvan life till then the natives led, 
Jn the brown shades and green-wood forest lost, 



262 THE CASTLE 

All careless rambling where it lik'd them most : 
Their wealth the wild-deer bouncing through the 

glade ; 
They lodg'd at large, and liv'd at nature's cost ; 
Save spear, and bow, withouten other aid ; 
Yet not the Roman steel their naked breast dismay'd. 

XVIII. 

He lik'd the soil, he lik'd the clement skies, 
He lik'd the verdant hills and flowery plains* 
Be this my great, my chosen isle (he cries) 
This, whilst my labours Liberty sustains, 
This queen of ocean all assault disdains. 
Nor lik'd he less the genius of the land, 
To freedom apt, and persevering pains, 
Mild to obey, and generous to command, 
Temper'd by forming Heaven with kindest, firmest, 
hand. 

XIX. 

Here, by degrees, his master-work arose, 
What ever arts and industry can frame : 
Whatever finish'd agriculture knows, 
Fair queen of arts! from heaven itself who came, 
When Eden flourish'd in unspotted fame : 
And still with her sweet innocence we find, 
And tender peace, and joys without a name, 
That, while they ravish, tranquillize the mind: 
Nature and art at once, delight and use combin'd. 



OF INDOLENCE. 263 

XX. 

Then towns he quicken'd by mechanic arts, 
And bade the fervent city glow with toil ; 
Bade social commerce raise renowned marts, 
Join land to land, and marry soil to soil, 
Unite the poles, and without bloody spoil 
Bring home of either Tnd the gorgeous stores; 
Or, should despotic rage the world embroil, 
Bade tyrants tremble on remotest shores, 
While o'er th' encircling deep Britannia's thunder 
roars. 

XXI. 

The drooping muses then he westward call'd, 
From the fam'd city* by Propontick sea, 
What time the Turk th' enfeebled Grecian thrall'd ; 
Thence from their cloister'd walks he set them 
And brought them to another Castalie, [free ; 

Where Isis many a famous noursling breeds ; 
Or where old Cam soft-paces o'er the lea 
In pensive mood, and tunes his Doric reeds, 
The whilst his flocks at large the lonely shepherd 
feeds. 

* Constantinople. 



264 THE CASTLE 

XXII. 

Yet the fine arts were what he finish'd least. 

For why ? They are the quintessence of all, 

The growth of labouring time, and slow increast ; 

Unless, as seldom chances, it should fall, 

That mighty patrons the coy sisters call 

Up to the sun-shine of uncumber'd ease. 

Where no rude care the mounting thought may 

thrall, 
And where they nothing have to do but please : 
Ah ! gracious God! thou know'st they ask no other 
fees. 

XXIII. 

But now, alas ! we live too late in time : 
Our patrons now even grudge that little claim, 
Except to such as sleek the soothing rhyme ; 
And yet, forsooth, they wear Maecenas' name, 
Poor sons of puft-up vanity, not fame. 
Unbroken spirits, cheer ! still, still remains 
Th' Eternal Patron, Liberty ; whose flame, 
While she protects, inspires the noblest strains. 
The best, and sweetest far, are toil-created gains. 

XXIV. 

When as the knight had fram'd, in Britain-Land, 
A matchless form of glorious government, 
In which the sovereign laws alone command, 
Laws stablish'd by the public free consent, 



OF INDOLENCE. 265 

Whose majesty is to the sceptre lent ; 
When this great plan, with each dependant art, 
Was settled firm, and to his heart's content, 
Then sought he from the toilsome scene to part, 
And let life's vacant eve breathe quiet thro' the heart. 

XXV. 

For this he chose a farm in Deva's vale, 
Where his long alleys peep'd upon the main. 
In this calm seat he drew the healthful gale, 
Here mix'd the chief, the patriot, and the swain. 
The happy monarch of his sylvan train, 
Here, sided by the guardians of the fold, 
He walk'd his rounds, and cheer'd his blest domain: 
His days, the days of unstain'd nature, roll'd, 
Replete with peace and joy, like patriarchs of old, 

XXVI. 

Witness, ye lowing herds, who gave him milk ; 
Witness, ye flocks, whose woolly vestments far 
Exceed soft India's cotton, or her silk ; 
Witness, with autumn charg'd, the nodding car, 
That homeward came beneath sweet evening star, 
Or of September-moons the radiance mild. 
O hide thy head, abominable war ! 
Of crimes and ruffian idleness the child ! 
From heaven this life ysprung, from hell thy glories 
vild. 

23 



266 THE CASTLE 

XXVII. 

Nor from his deep retirement banish'd was 
Th' amusing care of rural industry. 
Still, as with grateful change the seasons pass, 
New scenes arise, new landskips strike the eye, 
And all th' enliven'd country beautify : 
Gay plains extend where marshes slept before : 
O'er recent meads th' exulting streamlets fly ; 
Dark frowning heaths grow bright with Ceres' 
store, 
And woods imbrown the steep, or wave along the 
shore. 

xxvin. 

As nearer to his farm you made approach, 
He polish'd nature with a finer hand. 
Yet on her beauties durst not art incroach; 
'Tis art's alone the beauties to expand. 
In graceful dance immingled, o'er the land, 
Pan, Pales, Flora, and Pomona play'd: 
Here too brisk gales the rude wild common fann'd 
An happy place ; where free, and unafraid, 
Amid the flowing brakes each coyer creature stray'd. 

XXIX. 

But in prime vigour what can last for ay ? 
That soul-enfeebling wizard Indolence, 
I whilom sung, wrought in his works decay : 
Spread far and wide was his curs'd influence : 



OF INDOLENCE. 267 

Of public virtue much he dull'd the sense, 
Even much of private ; eat our spirit out, 
And fed our rank luxurious vices : whence 
The land was overlaid with many a lout ; 
Not, as old fame reports, wise, generous, bold, and 
stout. 

XXX. 

A rage of pleasure madden'd every breast, 
Down to the lowest lees the ferment ran : 
To his licentious wish each must be blest, 
With joy be fever'd ; snatch it as he can. 
Thus Vice the standard rear'd ; her arrier ban 
Corruption call'd, and loud she gave the word, 
" Mind, mind yourselves ! why should the vulgar 

" man, 
M The lacquey be more virtuous than his lord ? 
" Enjoy this span of life ! 'tis all the gods afford.'* 

XXXI. 

The tidings reach'd to where in quiet hall, 

The good old knight enjoy'd well-earn'd repose; 

" Come, come, Sir Knight ! thy children on thee 

"call: 
" Come, save us yet, ere ruin round us close ! 
" The demon Indolence thy toils o'erthrows." 
On this the noble colour stain'd his cheeks: 
Indignant, glowing through the whitening snows 
Of venerable eld ; his eye full-speaks 
His ardent soul, and from his couch at once he breaks. 



268 THE CASTLE 

XXXII. 

I will, (he cry'd) so help me, God I destroy 
That villain Archimage. — His page then straight 
He to him call'd, a fiery-footed boy, 
Benempt Despatch. " My steed be at the gate ; 
" My bard attend ; quick, bring the net of fate. 
This net was twisted by the sisters three ; 
Which when once cast o'er harden'd wretch, too 
Repentance comes : replevey cannot be [late 
From the strong iron grasp of vengeful destiny. 

XXXIII. 

He came, the bard, a little druid-wight, 
Of wither'd aspect; but his eye was keen, 
With sweetness mix'd. In russet brown bedight, 
As is his* sister of the copses green, 
He crept along, unpromising of mein. 
Gross he who judges so. His soul was fair, 
Bright as the children of yon azure sheen. 
True comeliness, which nothing can impair, 
Dwells in the miud : all else is vanity and glare. 

XXXIV. 

Come, (quoth the knight) a voice hasreach'd mine 

ear: 
The demon Indolence threats overthrow 
To all that to mankind is good and dear : 
Come Philomelus ; let us instant go, 

* The Nightingale. 



OF INDOLENCE. 269 

O'erturn his bovvers, and lay his castle low. 
Those men, those wretched men ! who will be 
Must drink a bitter wrathful cup of wo : [slaves ; 
But some there be, thy song, as from their graves, 
Shall raise. Thrice happy he ! who without rigour 



XXXV. 

Issuing forth, the knight bestrode his steed, 
Of ardent bay, and on whose front a star 
Shone blazing bright : sprung from the generous 
That whirl of active day the rapid car, [breed 
He pranc'd along, disdaining gate or bar. 
Mean time, the bard on milk-white palfrey rode ; 
An honest sober beast, that did not mar 
His meditations, but full softly trode : 
And much they moraliz'd as thus yfere they yode. 

XXXVI. 

They talk'd of virtue, and of human bliss, 
What else so fit for man to settle well ? 
And still their long researches met in this, 
This Truth of Truths, which nothing can refel : 
" From virtue's fount the purest joys out-well, 
" Sweet rills of thought that cheer the conscious 

" soul ; 
" While vice pours forth the troubled streams of hell, 
" The which, howe'er disguis'd, at last with dole 
" Will thro' the tortur'd breast their fiery torrent roll,'* 
23* 



270 THE CASTLE 



XXXVII. 



At length it dawn'd, that fatal valley gay, 
O'er which high wood-crown'd hills their summits 
On the cool height awhile our palmers stay, [rear. 
And spite even of themselves their senses cheer ', 
Then to the wizard's wonne their steps they steer, 
Like a green isle, it broad beneath them spread, 
With gardens round, and wandering currents clear, 
And tufted groves to shade the meadow-bed, 
Sweet airs and song ; and without hurry all seem'd 
glad. 

XXXVIII. 

" As God shall judge me, knight, we must forgive" 
(The half-enraptur'd Pkilomelus cry'd) 
" The frail good man deluded here to live, 
" And in these groves his musing fancy hide. 
" Ah ! naught is pure. It cannot be deny'd, 
" That virtue still some tincture has of vice, 
" And vice of virtue. What should then betide. 
" But that our charity be not too nice ? 
" Come, let us those we can to real bliss entice." 

XXXIX. 

" Ay, sicker, (quoth the knight) all flesh is frail, 
" To pleasant sin and joyous dalliance bent ; 
" But let not brutish vice of this avail, 
" And think to 'scape deserved punishment. 



OP INDOLENCE. 271 

" Justice were cruel weakly to relent ; 
" From Mercy's self she got her sacred glaive : 
" Grace be to those who can, and will, repent ; 
* £ But penance long, and dreary, to the slave, 
" Who must in floods of fire his gross foul spirit lave. '* 

XL. 

Thus, holding high discourse, they came to where 
The cursed carle was at his wonted trade ; 
Still tempting heedless men into his snare, 
In witching wise, as I before have said. 
But when he saw, in goodly geer array'd, 
The grave majestic knight approaching nigh, 
And by his side the bard so sage and staid, 
His countenance fell ; yet oft his anxious eye 
Mark'd them, like wily fox who roosted cock doth 
spy. 

XLL 

Nathless, with feign'd respect, he bade give back 
The rabble-rout, and welcom'd them full kind ; 
Struck with the noble twain, they were not slack 
His orders to obey, and fall behind, 
Then he resunvd his song ; and unconfin'd, 
Pour'd all his music, ran through all his strings ; 
With magic dust their eyne he tries to blind, 
And virtue's tender airs o'er weakness flings. 
What pity base his song who so divinely sings f 



272 THE CASTLE 

XLII. 

Elate in thought, he counted them his own, 
They listen'd so intent with fix'd delight : 
But they instead, as if transmew'd to stone, 
Marvell'd he could with such sweet art unite 
The lights and shades of manners, wrong and right. 
Mean time, the silly crowd the charm devour, 
Wide pressing to the gate. Swift, on the knight 
He darted fierce, to drag him to his bovver, 
Who back'ning shunn'd his touch, for well he knew 
its power. 

XLIII. 

As in throng'd amphitheatre, of old, 
The wary* Retiarius trapp'd his foe ; 
Even so the knight, returning on him bold, 
At once involv'd him in the JYet of Wo, 
Whereof I mention made not long ago. 
Enrag'd at first, he scorn 'd so weak a jail, 
And leapt, and flew, and flounced to and fro ; 
But when he found that nothing could avail, 
He set him felly down and gnaw'd his bitter nail. 

* A gladiator, who made use of a net, which he threw over 
his adversary. 



OF INDOLENCE. 273 



XLIV. 



Alarm'd, th' inferior demons of the place 
Rais'd rueful shrieks and hideous yells around ; 
Black stormy clouds deform'd the welkin's face, 
And from beneath was heard a wailing sound, 
As of infernal sprights in cavern bound ; 
A solemn sadness every creature strook, [ground : 
And lightnings flash'd, and horror rock'd the 
Huge crowds on crowds out-pour'd, withblemish'd 
look, 
As if on time's last verge this frame of things had 
shook. 

XLV. 

Soon as the short-liv'd tempest was yspent, 
Steam'd from the jaws of vext Avernus' hole, 
And hush'd the hubbub of the rabblement, 
Sir Industry the first calm moment stole. 
"There must, (he cry'd) amid so vast a shoal, 
"Be some who are not tainted at the heart, 
"Not prison'd quite by this same villain's bowl: 
"Come then, my bard, thy heavenly fire impart ; 
" Touch soul with soul, till forth the latent spirit start. 

XL VI. 

The bard obey'd ; and taking from his side, 
Where it in seemly sort depending hung, 
His British harp, its speaking strings he try'd, 
The which with skilful touch he deffly strung, 



274 THE CASTLE 






Till tinkling in clear symphony they rung. 
Then, as he felt the muses come along, 
Light o'er the chords his raptur'd hand he flung, 
And play'd a prelude to his rising song : 
The whilst, like midnight mute, ten thousands round 
him throng. 

XL VII. 



Thus, ardent, burst his strain. 

" Ye hapless race, 
" Dire-labouring here to smother reason's ray, 
" That lights our Maker's image in our face, 
" And gives us wide o'er earth unquestion'd sway j 
" What is th' ador'd supreme Perfection, say ? 
"What, but eternal never-resting soul, 
" Almighty power, aud all-directing day ; 
"By whom each atom stirs, the planets roll ; 
"Who fills, surrounds, iuforms, and agitates the 
" whole. 

XLVIII. 

" Come, to the beaming God your hearts unfold ! 
" Draw from its fountain life ! Tis thence, alone, 
" We can excel. Up from unfeeling mold, 
" To seraphs burning round th' Almighty's throne, 
" Life rising still on life, in higher tone, 
" Perfection forms, and with perfection bliss. 
44 In universal nature this clear shown, 
" Not needeth proof; to prove it were, I wis, 
" To prove the beauteous world excels the brute abyss. 



OF INDOLENCE. 275 



XLIX. 






"Is not the field, with lively culture green, 
"A sight more joyous than the dead morass? 
" Do not the skies, with active ether clean, 
" And fann'd by sprightly Zephyrs, far surpass 
" The foul November- fogs, and slumbrous mass, 
" With which sad nature veils her drooping face ? 
11 Does not the mountain-stream, as clear as glass, 
"Gay-dancing on, the putrid pool disgrace ? 
" The same in all holds true, but chief in human race. 

L. 

" It was not by vile loitering and ease, 
" That Greece obtain'd the brighter palm of art, 
11 That soft yet ardent Athens learn 'd to please, 
" To keen the wit, and to sublime the heart, 
" In all supreme ! complete in every part! 
" It was not thence majestic Rome arose, 
" And o'er the nations shook her conquering dart : 
" For sluggard's brow the laurel never grows ; 
"Renown is not the child of indolent repose. 

LI. 

" Had unambitious mortals minded naught, 
" But in loose joy their time to wear away; 
" Had they alone the lap of dalliance sought, 
"Pleas'd on her pillow their dull heads to lay, 



276 THE CASTLE 

" Rude nature's state had been our state to-day ; 
i{ No cities e'er their towery fronts had rais'd, 
" No arts had made us opulent and gay ; 
"With brother-brutes the human race had graz'd ; 
H None e'er had soar'd to fame, none honour'd been, 
".none prais'd. 

LII. 

il Great Homer's song had never fir'd the breast 

" To thirst of glory, and heroic deeds ; 

" Sweet Maro's muse, sunk in inglorious rest, 

li Had silent slept amid the Mmcian reeds : 

11 The wits of modern time had told their beads, 

" And monkish legends been their only strains ; 

" Our Milton's Eden had lain wrapt in weeds, 

" Our Shakspere stroll'd and laugh'd with Warwick 

"swains, 
u Ne had my master Spenser charm'd his MuttcCs 

" plains, 

LIII. 

" Dumb too had been the sage historic muse, 
" Andperish'd all the sons of ancient fame ; . 
" Those starry lights of virtue, that diffuse 
11 Through the dark depth of time their vivid flame, 
" Had all been lost with such as have no name. 
" Who then had scorn'd his case for others' good ? 
"Who then had toil'd rapacious men to tame ? 
" Who in the public breach devoted stood, 
6< And for his country's cause been prodigal of blood : 



OF INDOLENCE. 277 



LIV. 



" But should to fame your hearts unfeeling be, 
" If right I read, you pleasure all require : 
u Then hear how best may be obtain'd this fee, 
" How best enjoy'd this nature's wide desire. 
" Toil, and be glad ! let industry inspire 
" Into your quicken'd limbs her buoyant breath ? 
" Who does not act is dead ; absorpt entire 
" In miry sloth, no pride, no joy he hath : 
1 leaden-hearted men, to be in love with death ! 

LV. 

" Ah ! what avail the largest gifts of Heaven, 
" When drooping health and spirits go amiss ? 
" How tasteless then whatever can be given ? 
" Health is the vital principle of bliss, 
M And exercise of health. In proof of this, 
" Behold the wretch, who slugs his life away, 
" Soon swallow'd in disease's sad abyss ; 
" While he whom toil has brac'd, or manly play, 
:t Has light as air each limb, each thought as clear 
as day. 

LVI. 

■" O who can speak the vigorous joys of health ! 
" Unclogg'd the body, unobscur'dthe mind : 
"The morning rises gay, with pleasing stealth, 
" The temperate evening falls serene and kind. 
24 



278 THE CASTLE 

" In health the wiser brutes true gladness find. 
" See ! how the younglings frisk along the meads 
" As May comes on, and wakes the balmy wind ; 
" Rampant with life, their joy all joy exceeds : 
" Yet what but high-strung health this dancing plea- 
"/saunce breeds ? 

LVII. 

" But here, instead, is foster'd every ill, 
11 Which or distemper'd minds or bodies know. 
" Come then, my kindred spirits ! do not spill 
" Your talents here. This piace is but a show, 
" Whose charms delude you to the den of wo : 
" Come, follow me, I will direct you right, 
" Where pleasure's roses, void of serpents, grow, 
" Sincere as sweet; come, follow this good knight, 
" And you will bless the day that brought him to 
"your sight. 

LVIII. 

M Some he will lead to courts, and some to camps ; 
" To senates some, and public sage debates, 
" Where, by the solemn gleam of midnight-lamps, 
" The world is pois'd, and manag'd mighty states ; 
" To high discovery some, that new-creates 
" The face of earth ; some to the thriving mart, 
" Some to the rural reign, and softer fates ; 
"To the sweet muses some, who raise the heart; 
" All glory shall be yours, all nature, and all art. 






OF INDOLENCE. 279 



LIX. 



" There are, I see, who listen to my lay, 
" Who wretched sigh for virtue, but despair : 
" All may be done, (methinks I hear them say,) 
"Even death despis'd by generous actions fair; 
" All, but for those who to these bowers repair, 
" Their every power dissolv'd in luxury, 
" To quit of torpid sluggishness the lair, 
" And from the powerful arms of sloth get free. 
** ; Tis rising from the dead — Alas ! — It cannot be ! 

, LX. 

" Would you then learn to dissipate the band 
" Of these huge threatening difficulties dire, 
" That in the weak man's way like lions stand, 
" His soul appal, and damp his rising fire ? 
" Resolve, resolve, and to be men aspire. 
" Exert that noblest privilege, alone, 
" Here to mankind indulg'd : control desire: 
" Let godlike reason, from her sovereign throne, 
" Speak the commanding word — / will ! and it is 
" done. 

LXI. 

" Heavens ! can you then thus waste, in shameful 

" wise, 
" Your few important days of tryal here ? 
" Heirs of eternity ! yborn to rise 
" Through endless states of being, still more near 



280 THE CASTLE 

" To bliss approaching, and perfection clear, 
" Can you renounce a fortune so sublime, [steer, 
" Such glorious hopes, your backward steps to 
" And roll, with vilest brutes, through mud and 
" slime ? 
" No ! no ! — Your heaven-touch'd hearts disdain the 
" sordid crime !" 

LXIl. 

"Enough! enough!" they cry'd — straight, from 

the crowd, 
The better sort on wings of transport fly: 
As when amid the lifeless summits proud 
Of Alpine cliffs, where to the gelid sky 
Snows pil'd on snows in wintry torpor lie, 
The rays divine of vernal Phoebus play ; 
Th' awaken'd heaps, in streamlets from on high, 
Rous'd into action, lively leap away, [ing gay. 
Glad-warbling through the vales , in their new Be- 

LXIIT. 

Not less the life, the vivid joy serene, 
That lighted up these new created men, 
Than that which wings th' exulting spirit clean, 
When, just deliver'd from this fleshy den, 
It soaring seeks its native skies agen : 
How light its essence ! how unclogg'd its powers, 
Beyond the blazon of my mortal pen ! 
Even so we glad forsook these sinful bowers, 
Even such enraptur'd life, such energy was ours. 



OF INDOLENCE. 281 



LXIV. 



But far the greater part, with rage inflam'd, 
Dire-mutter'd curses, and blasphem'd high Jove. 
" Ye sons of hate ! (they bitterly exclaim'd) 
" What brought you to this seat of peace and love? 
" While with kind nature here amid the grove, 
" We pass'd the harmless sabbath of our time, 
" What to disturb it could, fell men, emove 
" Your barbarous hearts ? Is happiness a crime ? 
" Then do the fiends of hell rule in yon heaven 
V sublime." 

LXV. 

"Ye impious wretches, "(quoth the knight in wrath) 
" Your happiness behold !" — Then straight a wand 
He wav'd, on anti-magic power that hath, 
Truth from illusive falsehood to command. 
Sudden the landskip sinks on every hand ; 
The pure quick streams are marshy puddles found ; 
On baleful heaths the groves all blacken'd stand; 
And o'er the weedy foul abhorred ground, [around. 
Snakes, adders, toads, each loathsome creature crawls 

LXVI. 

And here and there, on trees by lightning scath'd, 
Unhappy wights who loathed life yhung ; 
Or, in fresh gore and recent murder bath'd, 
They weltering lay ; or else, infuriate flung 

24* 



282 THE CASTLE 

Into the gloomy flood, while ravens sung 
The funeral dirge, they down the torrent roll'd : 
These, by distemper'd blood to madness stung, 
Had doom'd themselves; whence oft, when nigh' 
control'd 
The world, returning hither their sad spirits howl'd. 

LXVII. 

Meantime a moving scene was open laid; 
That lazar-house, I whilom in my lay 
Depainted have, its horrors deep-display'd, 
And gave unnumber'd wretches to the day, 
Who tossing there in squalid misery lay. 
Soon as of sacred light th' unwonted smile 
Pour'd on these living catacombs its ray, 
Through the drear caverns stretching many a mile, 
The sick up-rais'd their heads, and dropp'd their 
woes awhile. 

LXVIII. 

" O heaven ! (they cry'd) and do we once more 
" Yon blessed sun, and this green earth so fai 
" Are we from noisome damps of pest-house fr j ? 
" And drink our souls the sweet ethereal air ? 
" O thou ! or Knight, or God ! who holdest there 
" That fiend, oh keep him in eternal chains ! 
" But what for us, the children of despair, 
" Brought to the brink of hell, what hope remains .* 
" Repentance does itself but aggravate our pains." 



OF INDOLENCE. 283 

LXIX. 

The gentle Knight, who saw their rueful case, 
Let fall adown his silver beard some tears. 
" Certes (quoth he) it is not even in grace, 
" T' undo the past, and eke your broken years : 
" Nathless, to nobler worlds repentance rears, 
" With humble hope, her eye ; to her is given 
" A power the truly contrite heart that cheers ; 
" She quells the brand by which the rocks are riven ; 
She more than merely softens, she rejoices Heaven. 

LXX. 

u Then patient bear the sufferings you have earu'd, 
" And by these sufferings purify the mind ; 
" Let wisdom be by past misconduct learn'd : 
" Or pious die, with penitence resign 'd ; 
" And to a life more happy and refin'd, 
" Doubt not, you shall, new creatures, yet arise. 
" Till then, you may expect in me to find 
One who will wipe your sorrow from your eyes, 
3 who will soothe your pangs, and wing you to 
^ " the skies." 

LXXI. 

They silent heard, and pour'd their thanks in tears, 
" For you (resum'd the Knight with sterner tone) 
" Whose hard dry hearts th' obdurate demon 

" sears, 
" That villain's gifts will cost you many a groan ; 



284 THE CASTLE 

"In dolorous mansion long you must bemoan 
" His fatal charms, and weep your stains away ; 
" Till, soft and pure as infant goodness grown, 
" You feel a perfect change : then, who can say, 
" What grace may yet shine forth in heaven's eter- 
" nal day ?" 

LXXII. 

This said, his powerful wand he wav'd anew : 
Instant, a glorious angel-train descends, 
The Charities, to-wit, of rosy hue ; 
Sweet love their looks a gentle radiance lends. 
And with seraphic flame compassion blends. 
At once, delighted, to their charge they fly : 
When lo ! a goodly hospital ascends ; 
In which they bade each lenient aid be nigh, 
That could the sick-bed smooth of that sad company. 

Lxxm. 

It was a worthy edifying sight, 

And gives to human kind peculiar grace, 

To see kind hands attending day and night, 

With tender ministry, from place to place. 

Some prop the head ; some, from the pallid face 

Wipe off the faint cold dews weak nature sheds; 

Some reach the healing draught : the whilst, to 

chase 
The fear supreme, around their soften'd beds, 
Some holy man by prayer all opening heaven dis- 
preds. 



OF INDOLENCE. 285 



LXXIV. 



Attended by a glad acclaiming train, 
Of those he rescu'd had from gaping hell, 
Then turn'd the Knight ; and, to his hall again 
Soft-pacing, sought of peace the mossy cell : 
Yet down his cheeks the gems of pity fell, 
To see the helpless wretches that remain'd 
There left through delves and deserts dire to yell ; 
Amaz'd their looks with pale dismay were stain'd, 
And spreading wide their hands, they meek repen- 
tance feign'd. 

LXXV. 

But ah ! their scorned day of grace was past ; 
For (horrible to tell) a desert wild 
Before them stretch'd, bare, comfortless, and vast, 
With gibbets, bones, and carcases denTd. 
There nor trim field, nor lively culture smil'd; 
Nor waving shade was seen, nor fountain fair; 
But sands abrupt on sands lay loosely pil'd, [care, 
Through which they floundering toil'd with painful 
Whilst Phczbus smote them sore, and fir'd the cloud- 
less air. 

LXXVI. 

Then varying to a joyless land of bogs, 
The sadden'd country a gray waste appear'd; 
Where naught but putrid streams and noisome fog* 
For ever hung on drizzly duster's beard ; 



286 THE CASTLE 

Or else the ground by piercing Caurus sear'd, 
Was jagg'd with frost, or heap'd with glazed snow: 
Thro' these extremes a ceaseless round they 

steerd, 
By cruel fiends still hurry'd to and fro, 
Gaunt Beggary, and Scorn, with many hell-hounds 



LXXVII. 

The first was with base dunghill rags yclad, 
Tainting the gale, in which they flutter'd light ; 
Of morbid hue his features, sunk, and sad ; 
His hollow eyne shook forth a sickly light; 
And o'er his lank jaw-bone, in piteous plight, 
His black rough beard was matted rank and vilef 
Direful to see ! an heart-appalling sight ! 
Mean time foul scurf and blotches him defile ; 
And dogs, where'er he went, still barked all the 
while. 

LXXVIII. 

The other was a fell despiteful fiend : 
Hell holds none worse in baleful bower below : 
By pride, and wit, and rage, and rancour, keen'd; 
Of man alike, if good or bad, the foe : 
With nose up-turn'd, he always made a show 
As if he smelt some nauseous scent ; his eye 
Was cold, and keen, like blast from boreal snow; 
And taunts he casten forth most bitterly. 
Such were the twain that off drove this ungodly fry* 



OF INDOLENCE. 287 

LXXIX. 

Even so through Brentford town, a town of mud, 
An herd of bristly swine is prick'd along ; 
The filthy beasts, that never chew the cud, [song. 
Still grunt, and squeak, and sing their troublous 
And oft they plunge themselves the mire among : 
But ay the ruthless driver goads them on, 
And ay of barking dogs the bitter throng 
Makes them renew their unmelodious moan ; 
Ne ever find they rest from their unresting fone. 




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